Who is arkady novikov

GQ Bar, which he opened last year with a permanent staff of , remains the hottest venue in town. When GQ Bar featured on the Manchester United website during Moscow's European Cup in May, it became a place of pilgrimage: British fans drank the ultra-glamorous gentlemen's club dry of lager in the space of an hour, causing chaos and somewhat lowering the designer tone.

Novikov's regulars are more likely to drink Californian chardonnay. Its popularity is rivalled only by Nedalny Vostok, another recent launch of Novikov, an Asian fusion restaurant whose stylish interior was masterminded by Super Potato, the Japanese cult designers behind Zuma and Roka in London.

Alongside Novikov's home in Sardinia next door to the villa of Roman Abramovich's girlfriend Daria Zhukova , the Villa Fontanelle project is a treat for all his years of hard work - but it also represents a departure.

Because Novikov is taking stock and setting his sights beyond Russia: he is in the early stages of planning an opening in Milan and has his eye ultimately on London. He has already sold off part of the company shares in Yolki-Palki, his budget chain to fund his new plans. Opening restaurants outside Moscow will be a break for him, he jokes, as it's the hardest-partying city in the world.

People who go to restaurants, dress fashionably and want "tusovka" a good time. And then there are the people who want to eat. Most Russians put themselves firmly in the first category. That's how we're different to the rest of Europe. When foreigners turn up they are in a state of shock that everything is so glamorous and over the top. Moscow has had a very short time to learn lessons which Europe learnt decades ago.

But it is still very much Russia: people dress differently and behave differently. For us, eating out is all about beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes. Moscow can be a terrifyingly expensive place to eat out for the penny-pinching foreigner - which is largely down to Novikov.

He is playing to a local audience who don't mind paying over the odds - indeed they would be suspicious of anything affordable. Even one of his own staff tells me, 'There is nothing in Moscow for the middle classes. The good news is that it's worth it: I have eaten at over a dozen of Novikov's restaurants usually on a Russian friend's tab and they always live up to their reputation.

I have tried the legendary crispy crab sticks with ginger mayo at Nedalny Vostok and the wild-strawberry soup at Bisquit. I always drink water out of respect for my friends' generosity, though. The people Novikov caters for make up the elite - which is a big class in Moscow, if not the rest of Russia. It is the one place in Moscow where you can order food and drink without fear of bankruptcy. This alone makes you think that Novikov must have a heart. Versace villas notwithstanding, he does seem to see himself as a man of simple tastes.

Yesterday I had the most delicious tea of bread, butter and honey in one of my restaurants. The bread must have a good crust, though, and it must be rye bread,' he frowns. His favourite foods are from his childhood: sweet black cherries and apricots: 'They were rare delicacies. There was not much fruit around when I was a boy. One of Novikov's claims to fame has been to put old Soviet favourites back on the menu: he waxes lyrical about okroshka, a cold soup made with kvass a mildly alcoholic fermented rye bread drink and khash, a fatty Armenian dish made with the feet, head and stomach of a cow.

It's delicious. Among his celebrity friends, Novikov has the George Clooney reputation to match the haircut: everyone loves him and declares him the most charming man on the Moscow circuit. But he has another side: his staff know him as exacting and demanding, as one might expect from a man who has played the Alan Sugar role during the first series of The Candidate, Russia's version of The Apprentice.

Interestingly, three years on, the female winner still works in his organisation. Novikov is also something of a maverick. He famously has no office and works out of whatever restaurant he is most fixated upon at any given moment. He only hired a PR for the first time last year. And it is rumoured that he visits all 47 of his establishments at least once a week, unannounced.

Which is not logistically possible, of course - but the prospect of it must keep people on their toes. There are rumours that a lot of our customers are Russian. Of course, the Russian public are very nice people and great customers, but in our restaurant, everyone is equal.

Just as before, we desire an international clientele, and for there to be loads of them. What excites you about opening new restaurants? I just like new projects, new ideas and materializing these ideas into reality and, naturally, making money.

Nothing really changes. In London, there is a demand for all types of different restaurants, both large and small, fine dining and simple, fast service venues etc. New restaurants are popping up all over the place in front of our eyes — many restaurants are popular and in demand.

If it is done intelligently, professionally, competently and honestly, then it all works. What is the dining scene in Russia like? Russians are open-minded about discovering new cuisines. I thought it was a restaurant, not a burger place.

I told the interviewer I could cook Italian and French food very well. Screwing up was the best move he made. He decided to strike out on his own. Well, no meat anyway.

So he decided to make it a fish restaurant. To drum up business, he created what, back in those early days of wild east capitalism, passed for wow-factor design — an aquarium below the see-through floor.

It was a hit. So much so that the local mafia visited and tried to strangle him when he refused to hand over the business. But he survived — and thrived. The more the Russian economy opened up, the more Russians began to make money and the more Westerners with expense accounts began to arrive in Moscow, the more restaurants Novikov opened.

Fifty, in fact. He tried everything and almost all of it worked, even a restaurant shaped like the inside of a cheese. Everyone wanted to eat — or at least be seen — at a Novikov restaurant. Later, when Putin became president, Novikov was hired to cook for Kremlin parties.

Novikov thanked him for not hiring him. Novikov may be focused on London this month but he has just closed a deal that is close to his heart in Moscow.

There were people in the queue outside. ES Money. The Escapist. The Reveller.