The Panait family, who own the Red Angus steakhouse and The Beef Club fine dining restaurant in Bucharest, have recently opened a new restaurant in Constanta.

The new unit is called Casa Hrisicos and is located in a historic building in the city center. The Panait family bought the building and renovated it with EUR 2.7 million and invested another EUR 500,000 in setting up the restaurant, Dragos Panait, executive director of Operative Steakhouse Group, which owns Red Angus and The Beef Club, told Romania-Insider.com.

“Casa Hrisicos is based on a High End Bistro concept, a location which intensifies the feeling of classic and history of the 1900s. At Casa Hrisicos there will be a friendly and welcoming attitude, where the restaurant becomes the elegant living room of a house and the waiters are its hosts. We are basing on a direct relationship to our guests where the Chef comes out of the kitchen and interacts with people, explains his dishes and suggest that courses on the menu that would best fit each customer’s taste,” Dragos Panait explained.

The concept of the menu and its strategy is developed by Corporate Executive Chef Michele Mingozzi, who also runs The Beef Club in Bucharest. The dishes are focused on special ingredients, fresh from the local market and imported delicacies produced in small designated areas in Europe and the menu will be adapted to each season.

Dragos Panait will personally oversee the restaurant at first, although Casa Hrisicos will also have an Executive Chef and a restaurant manager, who will see to the day to day operations.

“It was difficult to find a Chef in Constanta, but not the most difficult position. Unexpectedly, front of the house staff gave us a hard time for recruiting as the profile we are expecting is focused on the understanding of the business, personalized approach, and professionalism which turned out to be rare skills,” Panait said.

Casa Hrisicos has 70 seats inside and 40 on the terrace. The owners expect it to generate revenues of around EUR 720,000 in the first year of operation.

The Panail family also plan to open a boutique-hotel in the building, but haven’t yet decided on an opening date.

The Hrisicos House in Constanta was built in 1900 based on the plans of architect L. Givért, and initially served as a hotel and restaurant. The building owner was Gheorghe Hrisicos, a businessman who defrauded several banks and served time back in the early 20th century.

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Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com