Who Is Alexey Polikarpov?

First and foremost, I see myself as an entrepreneur — someone who brings new ideas to life. Everything I've loved in my life has grown into something bigger than a hobby and turned into a business. The story with gastronomy and restaurants also started as a hobby that I was able to monetize, and now it's already a big project that will turn 3 years old this September. 

I spent a long time thinking about who I am. For instance, I don't want to be seen as a blogger. I don't find that offensive, it's just that I feel more like a publisher, someone creating a new format for people — media that fits in your pocket. This ties into the current culture of content consumption. Right now, the audience's focus is more on influencers and on media that lets you get quality new information in a condensed form.

I make glossy gastronomy media that fits in your pocket.

I can say with confidence that I'm one of the few people in the restaurant market who brings any critical evaluation at all. Mostly, everyone writes exclusively about the good stuff and very rarely about what they didn't like. And I hope that, with us, regular guests will finally stop feeling shy about it. Only by daring to give honest criticism can you get better quality next time. 

The Restaurant Critic, According to a Neural Network 

A friend of mine who works in blockchain and AI said that the first thing he'd do to find out what a restaurant critic is, is ask ChatGPT. So what did ChatGPT come up with?

"A restaurant critic should influence public opinion, have their own audience, and be unbiased."

It seems to me all these attributes are clearly present in the case of Vkusonomika:

Through critical reviews and news publications, my team and I directly influence the flow of guests into restaurants. If I publish news about an opening or a positive review, the restaurant's phone starts ringing.

There's not just a Telegram channel with 47,000 subscribers, a VK community, a page on a banned social network, and a Zen channel, but also a full-fledged restaurant guide, currently visited by around 700 people a day — though the numbers were better in December, we changed the design and lost some search traffic, which we're working on now and have already started to recover. Their goal is very simple — pick a restaurant. Worth noting is the strong call-through rate  — 4.6% end up calling the restaurant, which works out to 32 tables booked per day through the guide alone, not counting the Telegram channel. My goal is to grow the guide's traffic to 2,000 people a day by the end of the year.

I'm one of the few foodies, bloggers, critics — call it whatever you like — who eats at my own expense and never goes to press events. That's why my evaluation and opinion are genuinely unbiased. If restaurateurs and PR departments try to treat me to something, it never ends well, because I see it as an attempt to buy my opinion. That's not a game worth playing with me. 

Focus Only on the Best 

From the start, my focus has been on medium+ and premium venues. Mostly in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but we've already launched the guide in Dubai and Tbilisi. We don't write about street food, market stalls, or small neighborhood restaurants out beyond the TTK, since that's not the level of gastronomy I'm willing to write about and recommend in my restaurant guide. 

After Michelin left Russia, we've earned the right to offer a worthy alternative, though I really regret their departure, since it was a huge push for the industry's growth.  And most importantly — chefs genuinely became stars. Where before everyone only knew Novikov, Zarkov, and the guys from Lucky Group, thanks to the guide, people came to know who Mukhin is, who Chistyakov, Troyan, Kovalkov, and Vikentyev are. Chefs gained recognition, and that became a huge boost for the profession. And as a result — a rise in quality. Kids who studied at culinary college got hope that in the future they might not end up working in a canteen, but could become stars of world caliber. 

How to Get Into the Restaurant Guide

I eat out more than seven times a week, away from home and the office. And even more often when traveling. The number of restaurants I've visited is approaching a thousand. My rating of a restaurant depends on how good the food and service were, the location and the view from the windows, and what emotions I experienced there. The relevance of the place matters to me too, and whether there's a sustainability trend. But the main and key thing, the reason I call myself a critic of the new wave, is an honest answer to the question — do you want to come back to this restaurant or not. And if I have a feeling that I'm ready to come again, feel the venue's atmosphere, enjoy the service  — that's the single most important indicator for me. Our restaurant guide runs on a very living evaluation. 

I believe restaurants should use secret guest services to gather honest feedback. And I'm exactly that secret guest who gathers feedback, except instead of writing reviews on search engines, I talk about it in my own media. We have our own team of secret guests, whom no one knows — these are people who visit restaurants without me, and their opinions are used to evaluate service only. 

What's in Alexey Polikarpov's DNA

I always doubt how valuable what I do really is, but everyone close to me says that I bring beauty into the world and have a sense for the beautiful in everything I touch — from interior design to media. I help develop people's sense of taste, and I see this world through the lens of beauty.

I always believe things can be better, bigger, faster. Self-criticism helps me a lot. I can say without false modesty that I really do have a beautiful food Telegram channel, and I like how the restaurant guide looks. When my colleagues and I first discussed the project, I decided I'd build glossy media inside Telegram. That's why you won't find iPhone snapshots or shaky video clips from me. Everything is shot and edited with quality, so people can enjoy the picture and, afterward, the food itself. 

I'm not closed off to the people I spend time with: I have many different circles, and all of them interesting. I really like the phrase, "if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room," so I'm constantly trying to find people who are better and smarter than me. 

I love Russian people, our openness, our soul. I adore Moscow and St. Petersburg and think they're the best places on earth. What's most valuable to me is my community. Raising a glass of crémant, I can say: "There's nothing better than simple human connection. We don't always remember the place we were in, but we always remember the people we shared those moments with."