SATIATING BUCHAREST
We explore the story of City Grill Group, whose customers have rejoiced in the restaurant chain’s delicious grilled food and impeccable service for 20 years
Writer: Lucy Pilgrim | Project Manager: Poppi Burke
Known as ‘Little Paris’, Bucharest benefits from several rich European cultures, amassing influence from a range of distinctive nations including Russia, Greece, Germany, and Serbia, creating an elegant and diverse city.
Due to this confluence of traditions, Romania’s capital presents a melting pot of cuisines, flavours, and spices, producing a unique food landscape.
Expertly mixing the harmonious blend of Romanian gastronomy, City Grill Group (City Grill) creatively combines the distinctive flavours with Asian and Western influences to present hearty dishes to those that call the city home.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the company was founded by two passionate restaurateurs with extensive backgrounds in hospitality and entrepreneurship.
Created from a perseverance to produce tasty dishes with the finest raw, whole ingredients, each of City Grill’s menu items revolve around top-of-the-range meat and local vegetables. Since its inception, therefore, the company has strived to offer the best grilled food prepared with the freshest ingredients. It was equally as important to
BUCHAREST
the founders of City Grill to create a restaurant business with an inviting and friendly atmosphere that would encourage loved ones to come together around a table of distinctly Romanian plates.
It also aims to pamper its guests, regardless of food preferences and location. As a result of this conviction, the company has achieved a restaurant repertoire
of unmistakeable and beloved Bucharestian cuisine.
AN UNMATCHED RESTAURANT REPERTOIRE
Considering that the Romanian food and beverage industry is comparatively underdeveloped in light of other European nations, City Grill is at the forefront of the country’s hospitality sector, offering delicious
dishes in four locations across prominent parts of Bucharest.
Holding a special place in the restaurant’s repertoire as the inaugural site, City Grill Primăverii opened its doors in 2004 and soon became a hot spot for the best grilled food in the city. Today, this location still promotes the highest standards of service, which has become the renowned business card of City Grill.
The Primăverii site offers an ambient atmosphere that welcomes families for a wholesome and memorable dinner. Diners can choose from a vast range of minced meat rolls that satisfy the hunger pangs of even the fussiest eaters.
Elsewhere, nestled in the centre of Bucharest is City Grill Covaci, which features a chic interior design to match the diverse tastes offered on the menu. In this restaurant, the company invites its guests to discover the indescribable joy of a perfectly prepared steak.
In the warmer months, restaurant goers can also enjoy the expansive terrace and beautiful views of the city whilst tucking into tasty food. In the winter, the grill, arguably the heart of the restaurant, warms the room with mouthwatering aromas.
The simultaneously traditional and urban menu offers minced meat and cabbage rolls, skewered meats,
roast beef steak, grilled fish, as well as veal cutlets. Evidently, traditional Romanian dishes find a distinctive home at City Grill, whose Covaci site sits nicely at the centre of the Unirii Square.
Meanwhile, City Grill Floreasca caters to Bucharest’s urban young professionals, offering the ultimate lunchtime snack or post-work dish in the bustling business district.
Equally as distinctive, City Grill Băneasa presents a welcome respite for those who have shopped till they’ve dropped in the city’s commercial district. Here, guests can choose from the best barbeque dishes that Bucharest has to offer, coupled with lighter dishes such as vegetable and tomato cream soup, eggplant salad, and a long list of delightful side dishes. If this wasn’t enough, visitors have the chance to sample a range of bold wines and freshly pressed juices.
‘CITY GRILL’S VISITORS ARE IN FOR A TREAT AS SOON AS THEY WALK THROUGH THE DOOR, OFFERING AN ABUNDANT BUT REFINED ARRAY OF FLAVOURS AND THE VERY BEST OF ROMANIA’S CUISINE’
Sarmale cabbage rolls
Chicken broth
Meeting the needs of passengers travelling to Romania, City Café opened in 2011 in the departures terminal of Otopeni Airport, and is the ideal place for tourists to start their culinary journey. Offering both healthy and mouth-watering treats, the cafe is the best place to grab a tasty sandwich or cookie before you hit the skies.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
City Grill’s visitors are in for a treat as soon as they walk through the door, offering an abundant but refined array of flavours and the very best of Romania’s cuisine.
Alongside impeccable service and nationally renowned dishes, the company also strives to support its local communities and loyal customers.
In particular, City Grill supports customers who are of the age of 65 years and over by providing an inviting place of sanctuary and kindheartedness for those affected by illness or loneliness.
Mici grilled sausage
Pork knuckle
What is BAT’s business transformation all about?
BAT embarked on an extensive business transformation with the launch of our first vaping product in the UK and USA 10 years ago. The portfolio has grown and today it includes a diverse range of vaping products, heating products for tobacco and herbal consumables and modern nicotine products for oral use. Our purpose is to create A Better Tomorrow™ by building a smokeless world, and we heavily invest in innovation and transformation to build a portfolio of reduced risk* products able to offer adult smokers a safer alternative to smoking. Globally, we invest £300 mil annually in the research and development of new categories and BAT’s non-combustible products are now available in over 60 markets. Science is fundamental for our new categories’ development, therefore we have two innovation centres around the world to rapidly develop our capabilities, in Shenzhen (China) and Trieste (Italy), and a third in Southampton (UK), with a recent investment of £30 million in 2023 that strengthens BAT’s R&D capabilities, providing nine specially designed technical spaces to aid the development of BAT’s portfolio of reduced risk* products.
Our goal is to increase the number of consumers of our non-combustible products to 50 million by 2030. We are making great progress as we have now close to 26.4 million consumers of our new category products worldwide. Every smoker who switches is a step forward towards A Better Tomorrow™.
Interview with Sorin Preda, BAT Romania Commercial Director
Sorin began his career with BAT in Romania in 1997 and has held management roles at the end-market and global level, including Head of Trade Romania, Head of Brands Romania, Senior IBG Dunhill Brand Manager, Group Head of OTP, and Country Manager Bulgaria.
As of August 1st, 2020, he is Romania Commercial Director, managing BAT’s complex portfolio of traditional and new category products in the market, in a very exciting time for BAT, that is transforming its business for A Better Tomorrow™.
How is that reflected in Romania?
In Romania, we are currently the only company in the industry with a strong multicategory portfolio that includes all reduced risk products*, which reflects our commitment to innovation. We are offering our adult consumers tobacco and herbal consumables for glo, our flagship heating device. We are also present in the vaping category with Vuse, and in December 2023 we launched VELO, our modern oral product. We are developing our portfolio to address the evolving expectations of our consumers and to advance our tobacco harm reduction ambition.
We also believe in the circular economy and we are proud in bringing our consumers along in this journey. With a circular vision on sustainability, which covers the entire life cycle of its products, BAT Romania launched in 2021 a national take-back scheme for recycling the previous versions of glo, its heating device for tobacco and herbal consumables. In 2022, the programme was extended to BAT’s vaping devices. Currently, more than 500 collection points are active across Romania, and so far more than 155,000 devices have been collected.
How do you communicate your innovative portfolio?
We took innovation one step further in the company’s business model in Romania, relating to retail. Starting with 2019, we became the first player in the industry to develop an online ordering platform for retailers, facilitating the flow of data between BAT and our commercial
partners. Currently, over 25,000 customers (retailers) access our digital ordering platforms weekly and over 95% of volumes are traded through this tool. This way of working was a first and a successful model for other FMCG companies in Romania, which later implemented similar solutions.
Technology and innovation are essential for most industries, with a very large part of the business, and our personal lives, being online. That’s where our consumers are too, so we wanted our products to be available in the digital platforms. We currently own some of the most accessible brands in digital commerce in Romania, on our own e-commerce and platforms developed by partners, such as e-mag, Glovo or Tazz. We rely widely on building a strong relationship with our commercial partners and HoReCa and we are proud supporters of some of the most renowned festivals and cultural events in Romania that highly contribute to community development and tourism in our country.
Regardless of the environment where we market our products, we strongly believe in responsibility and integrity and expect the same standards from our trading partners. Our products are exclusively for adult consumers, a very strong principle and a central element for our teams, and we expect the same standards from our commercial partners, regardless of the marketing channel used.
I am happy to say that City Grill is a perfect example of a commercial partner that brings reliability, consistency and value to our business and we are honored to share a long common journey in Romania, that contributes to economic growth and communities’ development. Happy 20-year anniversary, City Grill!
*Based on the weight of evidence and assuming a complete switch from cigarette smoking. These products are not risk free and are addictive.
COOKING UP PLANS
As City Grill reflects on the last 20 years of success, the company has many exciting developments to look forward to, including:
• Organically increasing the number of restaurants in the group
• Expanding its presence to Iași, Romania’s second largest city
• Investing €10 million into opening new restaurants and acquiring another company
• Growing its boutique hotel portfolio, adding a further two hotel sites
The restaurant chain is proud to offer its support in collaboration with the Princess Margareta of Romania Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that provides support for young children and the elderly in areas of education, community development, civil society, health, and culture.
Customers can donate to the charity and help the elderly through the ‘menu in waiting’ initiative, which makes providing aid easy and accessible. Visitors can reserve a table, and by doing so, are providing an elderly individual
with a special birthday meal or festive Christmas dinner.
Furthermore, as a result of the money raised and the contributions of the foundation’s volunteers, City Grill provides a hot, delicious meal for those who need it most.
Elsewhere, the company offers the ideal host location for any event or party, providing the perfect place to forge unforgettable memories. Whether a wedding, christening, or funeral, the City Grill team work hard to create the desired atmosphere and a bespoke menu.
Papanasi - Romanian doughnuts
Each event has a dedicated advisor that works closely with customers to ensure that all their requests are met, helping choose menu items and personalised themes as well as suggesting which City Grill location would be most appropriate.
Once a theme and location has been chosen, customers can sit back and relax as the event organisers take the wheel and oversee the entire prepreparation process.
Evidently, the company offers more than delicious food, proactively providing for many communities across Bucharest and ensuring every customer has the most enjoyable experience possible.
A RELIABLE FOOD CHAIN
As a continuation of City Grill’s endless community support, the company aims to draw from the local supply chain as much as it can. This includes using locally sourced ingredients to not only offer the
contact@selgros.ro www.selgros.ro
freshest food, but also champion small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Bucharest.
The company’s affinity with freshness is further exemplified by the fact that it utilises a central kitchen for production, which ensures unmatched efficiency in meeting the needs of a busy restaurant, whilst also guaranteeing that the same raw ingredients are used consistently
across its many locations.
In cases where ingredients such as meat cannot be provided by Romanian producers, City Grill turns to trusted suppliers in Austria, Germany, and Italy to provide top-ofthe-range produce. Otherwise, guests can rest assured that what they are eating is strictly Romanian grown.
As for the company’s extensive drinks list, it draws upon big names in the beverage industry, including Romania’s ‘king of beer’, Ursus Breweries, as well as industry giants such as PepsiCo.
City Grill also has a strong partnership with Selgros Romania, who provide many of the key ingredients needed to deliver the ultimate dining experience for customers.
Ultimately, the company offers state-of-the art and indulgent Romanian cuisine that adheres to cultural tradition and complements each restaurant’s friendly and inviting atmosphere.
Selgros.Romania selgros_romania