The city authorities will limit their participation by allocating plots of land and appointing sites for the 19 restaurants to be lent to fitting on-line operators on the competition basis, the newspaper Izvestia writes.
There are 3,100 eating centres in Moscow now, from the democratic McDonald's to the elite Pushkin.
"Popular Restaurants" are designed to fit in this company, rather in the segment where people are treated not with sausages straight on the street but to borsch's in cosy halls.
"This kind of public eating centres provide self-service. All dishes are cooked before the eyes of the customers and served simultaneously in several zones, ensuring maximal ease and rate of choice", the concept says.
The centre provides lunches or dinners in a matter of 20 to 30 minutes for 150 roubles.
They will be small and large. Large - 1,500 seats, floorspace up to 6,000 square metres, up to three floors high in stand-alone buildings. Small - seating 400, 1,500 square metres, two floors at most. Owners of both will have to provide for separate zone for smokers and non-smokers, beer and sweets zones, a semifinished products shop, consumption off the premises. The cuisine will be Italian, Japanese, Central Asian and, of course, Russian.
Restaurant Consulting project director Andrei Petrakov notes that such centres are many, at first sight, in Moscow but are far between. The volume of primary investments is usually 1,500 dollars per square metre, or 300,000 to 400,000 dollars as regards an average-sized restaurant. "If the location is right, the centre will pay its way in two years", Petrakov believes.
