The FINANCIAL — Elvis American Diner, located in Tbilisi Concert Hall, has in recent times become one of the public’s favourite places to visit for food.
According to Vika Chikaidze, General Manager of Elvis American Diner, Elvis will soon be available on the Black Sea coast of Georgia, in Batumi.
The company was planning to open an Elvis in Batumi this year but due to several reasons it was delayed for a while. Elvis will also add one more little branch in Tbilisi soon according to Chikaidze.
Elvis American Diner (short EAD) is a themed restaurant – the concept of Elvis Presley’s legacy is present through the decor, artwork, food and music providing an overall “feel” of vintage American culture. The food is served on ceramic tableware and silverware. Most dishes are prepared a-la-carte and are brought to the customer’s table by a waiter once paid. The main service point is a long bar that is divided into different serving stations. Each station is a unique selling station. In the larger facilities the second floor is a full-service sit down restaurant.
“We offer our clients a very famous and popular American Grill menu. This menu includes burgers, American pizzas that differ from Italian ones, sandwiches and of course French fries. This menu is very popular with people. Burgers are one of our main products and we always try to keep their quality high. We import some special ingredients to create our burgers with but we buy meat on the local market,” Chikaidze said.
“It’s really very important to have fresh meat to make burgers with. We do not use frozen meat. The taste becomes very different when burgers are made of frozen meat. Fresh meat gives a burger a special aroma and is much tastier. There is a big difference between burgers made with fresh and frozen meat. We keep up our standards of making burgers and we never change their quality,” Chikaidze said.
“One of the most important things at Elvis is that people are able to see how the burgers and other dishes are made. They can see themselves how the cook makes fresh burgers for them from scratch. Most of the customers are very interested in the process of making burgers. When you are able to see how the product is made which you are going to eat, it is one of the biggest advantages for the success of a company,” Chikaidze said.
According to Chikaidze from the day of its opening Elvis has been very interesting and attractive for a large number of people.
“We are oriented on offering such products that are acceptable for Georgian tastes as they like slightly spicy food. I think we completely satisfy the needs of each of our consumers. Burgers existed on the local market before the appearance of Elvis but we offered them slightly different ones, bigger and of better quality. Many people visit us specifically to taste the American menu,” Chikaidze said.
“We have quite normal prices that are more oriented on the middle class. In recent times the price of meat has significantly increased and now costs about 20 GEL per kilo. A low costing burger has less quality than we have. You can’t expect to pay 1 GEL or 1.50 GEL for a burger when the price of meat is so high on the local market,” Chikaidze said.
“With time the number of people visiting us is increasing. We have a home delivery service which is quite flexible for our clients in the summer. If someone is having a holiday in Tskneti, Tsavkisi or another place which is close to the capital city, then they are able to call our delivery service and we will drive their order to their location,” Chikaidze said.
Elvis has a branch in Mtastminda Park which is also quite popular in the summer.
“Demand for Elvis is quite high so we are planning to add one more branch in Tbilisi soon. Elvis has a boom of clients during the lunch period. We have special offers for lunch menus and some discounts, so company representative often visit us. Within the frame of our lunch menu people can have different menus like a pizza menu, burger menu and Thai menu, all from 6 GEL,” Chikaidze said.
“We also have some tasty desserts and milkshakes. Tourists are very interested in Elvis. We are located in the very centre of Tbilisi and that often attracts tourists to us. Throughout the day many teenagers visit us as they like burgers very much. Mostly we satisfy the needs of all age segments started from children, going up to adults. We have also had cases when we have catered birthdays at our restaurants.”
“Fortunately most people nowadays pay more attention to the quality of a product rather than just a lower price. Of course a lower price has its own influence, but people have now started caring more about the quality of their food and having ecologically cleaner products.”
Elvis has some corporate clients and according to Chikaidze Elvis serves some big companies in Tbilisi. “Bank of Georgia and ProCredit Bank are some of our most loyal clients. We have a contract with company Samsung,” she said.
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