I recently made my life long dream come true and bought this awesome property in Dobra Voda (Bar, Montenegro) with a 200 year old stone ruin from the Ottoman empire to turn it into a Restaurant & Bar hopefully by July 2022! There is 2400sm of land, so I will also be able to be creative and built wooden huts, a pool, sauna, jacuzzi and I will even have my very own wine cellar (which I am super excited about personally!)
If you live in the Bar area, do you think a new Restaurant in a unique environment and a fresh menu with items from all over the world would be something the locals would like to see and go to? Would love to hear your feedback, I will def bring in a lot of people from abroad haha!
Even though its not open yet, I have already created some social media pages to document the construction progress from January and share some photos with more explanations on my ideas and plans. Should you be interested to visit some day, feel free to follow those! Very curious to hear what you think
I'm from Croatia. I've never been to Montenegro, but they should be similar to us mentality-wise. I believe you'll have to make a choice who you want to appeal to, the locals or the tourists, with my recommendation being the tourists.
Remember that the buying power in the Balkans is low compared to the UK and the first world countries. I've also travelled the world a lot for my work, and I had no idea how much people in other countries go out for breakfasts, brunches, lunches, dinners etc. People in Croatia go out to eat mostly on special occasions and dates. You rarely go out to eat just to socialize with friends. People just don't have the money to do it. And if people don't have the money for it, and your place is super cool, they might think it's pretentious etc etc. My point is, if you wanna appeal to the locals, it would have to be something cheap they can afford. People in the balkans love to spend hours and hours drinking coffee, or beer with friends. If you have a sweet spot for that, with prices that are not too crazy compared to other bars, the locals will love it.
And for the tourists, you can go 'crazy' and try to make all your ideas come to reality. "build it and they will come" The tourists usually have money to spend and are just looking for the best possible experiences they can find.
Good luck man!
I've been thinking about visiting Montenegro in the summer for a few years now, if I come, I'll keep your place in mind and maybe I drop by :-)
Thanks man! My idea was to cater tourists and wealthy locals. even tbough montenegro generally has a very low average wage, there are still people earning more and living a more higher end life. Even in Montenegro On top of that the things my place will offer (Pool, sauna, jacuzzi, wine cellar, old ruin well restructed etc) will also have a more higher end appearance and the level of food quality will be high as well, so I dont think i will offer dishes for the price in a local shop around a corner in the city centre. So this will be primarily for richer locals and tourists, both happy to pay ~10€ for a meal instead of ~3-4€.
Also it will be a great venue for events like weddings, birthdays etc
Thanks for your feedback! Hope to see you in person in the future then so you can have a look foryourself
On December 06 2021 14:06 Tak3r wrote: Thanks man! My idea was to cater tourists and wealthy locals. even tbough montenegro generally has a very low average wage, there are still people earning more and living a more higher end life. Even in Montenegro On top of that the things my place will offer (Pool, sauna, jacuzzi, wine cellar, old ruin well restructed etc) will also have a more higher end appearance and the level of food quality will be high as well, so I dont think i will offer dishes for the price in a local shop around a corner in the city centre. So this will be primarily for richer locals and tourists, both happy to pay ~10€ for a meal instead of ~3-4€.
Also it will be a great venue for events like weddings, birthdays etc
Thanks for your feedback! Hope to see you in person in the future then so you can have a look foryourself
First off, congratulations! Big step, big plans and sounds exciting!
Remember that tourists often want to try local things. It looks and sounds like you're aiming to be quite upscale, so I hope you have a chef who can do exciting things with local ingredients. Imho that's a niche that will always work. E.g. people can get a burger anywhere, but a burger with locally sourced lamb meat and goat cheese from the valley around the corner? That's more interesting! Of course, I don't know what type of tourists visit Bar. If it's youthful Russian (or German, or from anywhere) beach goers, you might be better off just serving pizza, but seems a waste of such a beautiful location to cater to the lowest possible denominator.
I've never been to Montenegro, but I've been to Croatia and Albania, and eaten really well in both countries. The local wine is also rather good, and Montenegrin Vranac is top quality!
I spent a vacation with my extended family many years ago in Montenegro, and it was one of my favorite experiences. Congratulations Hopefully I will visit some day with my own family.
Thanks guys! long term i plan to offer both local dishes as well as an international menu. But i will start small with a few items in the start before starting stocking up hardcore on ingredients without knowing how many people I can expect Maybe I should focus on the bar first which will be easier to manage in the start hehe
Not trying to talk bad about them, I am just generally not a big fan of these beach hotels that all look the same, but its all personal taste. Some people like it, its just not mine!
Do you have any past experience of running a restaurant? You need to also think carefully how many people are you going to employ. Restaurant and food business is very hard as I have seen. Good luck to you and hope you have a good business. Get ready to put alot of hours on that new journey of yours, its going to be tough.
P.S: I dont know how covid affects Montenegro but in Greece because of covid restaurant activity has dropped ALOT. also people that dont want to get vaccinated cant even enter.
Hey no expierence running one directly, but I grew up in one. But I will def have someone who knows what he is doing for that
Might also just start off with a bar that offers some food without a full Restaurant, not decided on that yet.
Covid in Montenegro is rather less problematic than in other countries like Greece, at least when I was there a month ago and currently from what my contacts tell me.
I have arrived back in Montenegro last night and tomorrow we start with the work.
One more thing I will focus on is shared workspace for expads and digital nomads. They can work in the ruins during the day, enjoy the pool and some good drinks and then at 5pm I will close the working time and open the bar from 6pm. Hopefully some of them will stay around if they get a free first drink on the house
I think there are some great synergy options for sure and Montenegro as a country has plans to invest into digital nomads as will and works on putting up more initiatives to get more of them into the country starting next year. So pretty much when I should be done with my construction and ready to welcome them!
btw, if you are not familiar with the area and want to know more, check this video with some amazing sunsets from the two beaches near my place. They are both around 20-25 mins and I am pretty much in the middle of them =)
Heyhey! There is a big update on the project with my focus on Coworking now and you can have a closer look at the space now after clearing up the property from all the bush and vegetation. Cant wait to get this started and welcome the first guests, fingers crossed no major issues will come up during the renovation/construction process.
EPT
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