The man who built a beefy empire

Riccardo Giraudi describes himself as a creator. The man behind restaurant brands that include Le Petit Beefbar, Beefbar, Izakaya, Sonq Qi, and Moshi Moshi in places as far flung as Asia, Africa, the US and Europe, believes that food is the new fashion but says he is neither a chef nor a designer. “I’m a very creative guy,” he says. “I can’t cook or draw but I see it all and put it into action.”

Giraudi has been putting brands into action since 2005 and today oversees a formidable restaurant empire that is bewilderingly large and diverse. Visit his website and the list of countries in which his restaurants have a presence reads like a United Nations guest list, taking in the likes of his birthplace of Monaco as well as Luxembourg, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Georgia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Kuwait, Brazil, Mexico, and the US to name a few. The list of restaurant brands under his purview is equally impressive, divided into categories that include ‘modern luxury’, ‘heritage brands’, ‘hype and relaxed’, ‘casual cool’, and ‘fast casual’. Like fashion, for Giraudi there is a brand for every occasion.

I don’t get to meet Giraudi in person given his hectic schedule and unnerving ability to rack up air miles but instead I conduct our interview over Zoom. He’s taking a few days out at a retreat looking relaxed in a grey t-shirt and drinking something healthy, a welcome respite between plane journeys and business meetings. As we chat it becomes even more evident why this little piece of R&R is so important; Giraudi is a busy man with a lot of plates spinning.

Take, for example, his entry into the US with the opening of his meat-focused brand Beefbar in April in New York’s Tribeca area. That Beefbar is one of around 36 that are dotted around the world, with 20 more in the pipeline in places including Prague, T’bilisi, Bahrain, Marrakech, Strasbourg, and at sea on two ocean liners. “In three years, I will have around 45 or 50 Beefbars,” he says. “There are a lot of opportunities out there.”

An unconventional approach

Giraudi’s entry into the world of restaurants while unconventional was almost inevitable. Born and raised in Monaco to an Italian family, he moved to London to study finance at the wishes of his father. While he says he liked it, it ultimately wasn’t the career for him, and he instead became an intern at London-based PR company Bacchus working for founder Anouschka Menzies. Working out of what he says was Menzies’ basement he developed a love for turning restaurant brands into lifestyle stories. “I got thrown in the restaurant business by the back door during those years, and I loved it.”

He stayed in restaurant PR for a year before returning to Monaco in the early noughties to join the family business Giraudi Meats, a meat trading company founded by his father Erminio in 1968. One of his first actions was to develop exclusive beef import and exports, starting with American Black Angus followed by Australian Black Angus before becoming the first and sole importer or certified Japanese Kobe beef, gaining him the name ‘Beefboy’. A few years later, realising that it would be nice to have somewhere he could showcase the company’s produce, he opened the first Beefbar in Monaco in 2005.

"For me the most important
market will be America"

Despite its name, Beefbar is not your typical steakhouse. The brand's design features bright and luxurious interiors that don’t follow traditional steakhouse design cues and while it started out quite traditionally, it morphed into something more lifestyle-focused with the introduction of Japanese, Asia and Italian influences as well as street food dishes. Today, its menu ranges from starters of Kobe beef jamon; dry-aged beef ribeye sando; and braised veal quesadillas to mains of veal and wagyu bolognese; sliced tagliata steak with parmesan and mashed potato; prime New York strip; and miso black beef, a bovine take on black cod.

Such is its eclecticism that New York publication Grub Street​ described the new Tribeca restaurant as ‘one strange steakhouse’, with one contributor making mention of the ‘beef wonderland of appetizers’ while another described the space as ‘classic steakhouse versus beef fantasia’.

“Beefbar targets women and men alike,” says Giraudi when trying to describe it himself. “It can be for a traditional steak or for someone who wants to have ceviche, it caters to everyone. I’m very into the feminine aspect because a lot of the time it’s the girls who bring the guys to restaurants.

“My dream is that people come and don’t eat a steak but just have all the starters. It means I have differentiated myself from other places and stand out. It’s not a steakhouse but we do sell beef and we are proud of it.”

Moving beyond Monaco

One restaurant led to two, and then to more within Monaco, which would eventually become a test bed for a whole manner of concepts that now include Japanese sushi bar Moshi Moshi, modern fine dining Chinese restaurant Song Qi, and fast causal brands Babek Kebab and Grubers Burgers.

“Monaco is an excellent testing ground,” he insists. “It is ultra-competitive, so succeeding there is not easy. It is like Dubai, which is one of the hardest cities to crack, or London or Paris.”

Giraudi’s first step outside of Monaco was in Moscow in 2008, for a (now closed) restaurant, and global expansion has spread from there by means of a varied business model. In Europe, the company operates many of the restaurants itself but in other territories it franchises and manages restaurants, providing chefs, front of house managers and marketing managers, or works with a franchise partner. Its fast casual brands, meanwhile, are offered under a licensing agreement.

“We try and keep our own where we have our own people,” Giraudi says of the model. “When you own a restaurant on the other side of the world, you’re going to have employees running it. I’d rather have a partner who takes care of it because it’s theirs, not like if it was theirs’. I see how important that is.

“I’ve had experience of having amazing partners and very bad ones so you must choose carefully. A lot of potential partners want to start fiddling with the menus. I tend to go with proven hospitality groups that understand what it means to bring a brand to a country.”

“There are so many beautiful, dusty
sleeping brands with so much potential”

Such an approach has enabled the company to spread across the globe, with Beefbar being the hero brand. Yet almost 20 years since it launched it has finally touched down on US soil. Why did he choose Sao Paulo or Limassol over New York?

“The most important factor was that I was scared,” he says. “You don’t go to America and open a steakhouse if you’re from Monaco. The brand wasn’t ready. It was too traditional until the past six years when we changed it and thought we were finally ready.”

Initially unable to find the right partner, Giraudi made the decision to do it himself, but Covid stopped the works. Once the pandemic was over, he was approached by an investor and together they took on the former Nobu site in Tribeca to open Beefbar following two years of construction.

If the restaurant performs well, others are likely to follow. “I’m very nervous to see how New York goes, but if it works it will be a big deal. For me the most important market will be America.”

UK expansion

Though the company entered the UK earlier than the US, with its London site opening​​ in late 2021, it was still late on in its expansion plans. With the UK it has taken a slightly different approach, opening a Le Petit Beefbar rather than its hero Beefbar brand.

During Covid a site was found in Chelsea, but Giraudi could not visit it. He remembers liking it but realising it was not right for Beefbar. “I always wanted to do something in London, it’s very important to me. But this was not in Mayfair, and Beefbar belongs in Mayfair or Marylebone, so I thought why not do something smaller?

“The menu is pretty much the same, but it’s more neighbourhoody and less of a statement.”

A second Le Petit Beefbar then followed in Edinburgh ​​last year when he was approached by InterContinental hotels. Will Beefbar proper ever make it on these shores? “I would love to do one in Mayfair,” he says. “I have been offered so many locations, but the rents are so high and so is the risk. I am at a level today where I cannot afford to fail. I’m waiting for the perfect site.

“The most important thing is that the location has to be even stronger than your brand, so as you grow it gets even harder to find the right site.”

He says he would like to partner with a London hotel where the risk is lower. “The brand is at a level where the opportunity will come, but I’m not going to sign something just to be in Mayfair. It’s important in this industry not to push and be desperate to open, but to wait.”

He adds he is even considering another Beefbar spin off, such as a small “super-chic” atelier style restaurant and would also like a presence in other UK cities, including Manchester.

Giraudi’s other business interest in the UK is Italian restaurant Cantinetta Antinori​​ (pictured above) in partnership with wine company Antinori. Antinori opened the original Cantinetta Antinori in Florence in 1957 and more recently it has expanded to Zurich, Moscow, Vienna and Monaco.

Cantinetta Antinori is described by Giraudi as a “heritage brand” and is one of a number that the restaurateur has bought into in recent years. Others include African Queen, an African French restaurant that has traded since 1969 at the port of Beaulieu sur Mer; Zeffirino, which opened in Genoa in 1939; and Southern American restaurant Anahi in Paris.

“I love to take brands on board and remodel them – that’s the future. Building a brand from scratch now is not impossible but it doesn’t excite me.

“There are so many beautiful, dusty sleeping brands with so much potential and all you have to do is polish them because you have the story already. A lot of people are coming to me and saying, ‘I’d love you to take on my brand’. Buying or finding legacy brands and doing more of a portfolio of brands is more interesting for me.”

Projects in the pipeline

As well as the continued rollout of Beefbar, forthcoming projects include the opening of a second African Queen, in Dubai, and a Zeffirino in Istanbul.

In Monaco he intends to open a second site for Anahi as well as a Beefbar Deli and also Beefbar Asia next door to the original Beefbar. Giraudi had initially intended to open a plant-based Leafbar at the site but decided it was too big and has instead opted for a Korean BBQ concept.

“Had it been 30 seats I would have done it,” he says. “Korean BBQ does not exist in south of France, so it will be something different.”

In the UK there are plans for pizza brand Pizz’Aria, which he launched in 2021 in partnership with Christian Pederzini. Pizz’Aria deals in pinsa romana, oval shaped wood-fired pizza with toppings such as stracciatella, grilled vegetables, ricotta salata, crushed pistachios, and crushed tomatoes, with a site in Bellsize Park one of three planned for London in the coming months. There are also plans to launch pizza vending machines.

Beyond that, he says he will look to consolidate the business, although you get the impression this is easier said than done. “I’ve opened a lot in the past years and I’m doing a lot more but in the future I’d rather open one or two a year. I don’t want to jeopardise all the work I’ve done by wanting to run faster," he says.

“If there’s a great opportunity I’ll take it. Beefbar is mature but not in the US so if it does well there, I will open one a year. I can grow more brands for sure.”