Retail
The new office restaurant network that will revolutionize office dining is helped by Newmark VLK Hungary
Béla Szini, one of the owners of Pomodoro, started building a new premium office restaurant chain under the trademark “Kantin”, together with Attila Hegyi, owner of Albatros Catering and Pastel restaurant.
Their first restaurant, also called “KANTIN”, located in Advance Tower on Váci út, is already open. The establishment over performed expectations, and thus the owners have decided to announce opening up a second “KANTIN” in 2020, which will be followed by three further units.
The restauranteurs were and are helped by Newmark VLK Hungary, the tenant-only commercial real estate company in selecting their future locations.
Newmark VLK Hungary confirms that the office market is ahead of significant changes.
The economic growth of recent years has increased the demand for higher quality offices, meaning that developers have begun incorporating a variety of premium services into their office complexes.
In the last year alone, well-known franchises have opened about a dozen cafés inside office buildings in Budapest. The next stage of changes will be marked by the appearance of premium restaurants.
While the main criterium for office building restaurants used to be cheapness, the appearance of generation Y and Z employees has created an opening for the new, premium segment restaurants on the market, according to Valter Kalaus, managing director at Newmark VLK Hungary.
The “KANTIN” brand restaurants will aim at challenging other office restaurants with higher quality dishes and better design, instead of lower prices. The owners use ingredients that fit the reputation of their former, well-established brands, and aim to serve not only those looking for a quick business lunch but people simply looking for a delicious meal as well.
The menu features dishes such as Greek chicken burger with feta and tzatziki, sous-vide pullet breast with tomato sauce and arugula mashed potatoes, and desserts like gluten-free cottage cheese cage and poppy seed cake with sour cherries. The restaurants will offer wok dishes, vegetarian meals, as well as international and Hungarian specialties. The establishments will have a café section as well.
“Employees are increasingly looking for premium quality and attractive design,” says Béla Szini. “Beside business aspects, we also aim at launching a quality revolution in office catering. We make no compromises when it comes to ingredients used for the dishes, as we use only the best.”
György Losonci, Newmark VLK Hungary retail expert, says “Two teams with twenty years of experience in hospitality have come together. This and their market knowledge helps them in building a new restaurant chain. The first restaurant was the test, the success of which indicated their business plan, so they are already working on preparing the second restaurant.”
The Budapest modern office stock increased in the last 3 years with 20 percent, that is above 3.6 million square meters. The Newmark VLK Hungary expert believes that the market growth will not stop but increase, based on the development pipeline where yearly another 150.000 – 200.000 square meter new office area is expected to be delivered in the next three years. So, the new supply will increase with another approximately 600.000 square meters, which is a 15% increase compared to the total stock. Concerning these new projects, developers and property managers will have to take consider the new employment market conditions, and their changed requirements. – confirms Valter Kalaus.