It is said that almost anything can happen in the Fricska restaurant in Veszprém. If you arrive in the summer, you can not only eat on the unusual - and award-winning - terrace, but also soak your feet in the Séd stream.
But Fricska is not only a lovely restaurant, a paradise for those who want to relax, it is also a place where the team that has been together for years thinks about helping others.
Krisztián Rácz I spoke to the chef-manager about the secret of their success. The first thing I mentioned was the charm of the place, as the restaurant is located at the foot of Benedek Hill, on the banks of the Séd River in Veszprém. It has a huge terrace, an unforgettable panorama, and there is a lot of “through traffic”, since Ficska is located next to the road leading to the main tourist attractions of the city!
Not only is the panorama and the setting beautiful, but the building itself is special. What used to be here?
The Fricska building used to be a canon's house. The Fricska Separé, which is part of the restaurant, is located in a 600-year-old mill building. It was renovated two years ago with fantastic interior woodwork, unique design and atmosphere.
But not only in the Separé, but also in the main building of the restaurant, the contemporary solutions have been preserved. You have not covered the ceiling, the wooden beams are very beautiful, and the vaulted interior is also beautiful, which in itself gives the restaurant a sense of structure.
Our basic concept is that Fricska is a restaurant apartment and not a restaurant flat. There is a huge difference between the two. The interior of the restaurant is designed as if you were coming home to your own home, which means that the restaurant is divided into three parts, just like a normal apartment.
What do you call the room we enter?
This is the living room, complete with a huge mirror and everything else you'd normally find in a living room. Opposite us is the dining area. In the left corner of the restaurant, we have created a library and a children's room, which could be considered part of the living room. And of course there are tables everywhere, and these separate yet harmonious spaces make the interior of the restaurant unique.
What is your secret? The place, the design of the restaurant, the food, or the fact that Fricska has a very good name in the area, in the city?
We know that Fricska alone could not be so popular. There are three very important things in the restaurant business, not just here but everywhere.
SERVICE/QUALITY/ATMOSPHERE
In other words, guests will come back if you provide them with good service, good quality food and a special atmosphere. We have worked hard to ensure that all three conditions are met. We had many things to improve and we are still improving. We know where we are now and where we want to go. We are therefore taking very serious steps to learn as much as possible and to be as prepared as possible for every eventuality.
We know that in summer people come for the location, so we can have a terrace for nearly 200 people during this period. We will almost double that this summer, so if all goes well, we will have a terrace of 350 people. In the summer, there is a lot of foot traffic, as the St Catherine's Promenade runs through us, from the St Margaret's Gardens to the zoo. Passers-by simply have no other option than Fricska if they want to, say, have a coffee or a meal. That's why it's so important that our visitors get the best, that we live up to the standard of the route that was voted Hungary's most beautiful promenade. We have a lot of returning guests, many of whom come especially to us, as they are welcomed by a special atmosphere on the terrace. This is coupled with a well-constructed menu and a professionally trained and constantly trained wait staff. Finally, the food we prepare is of the highest quality. It's probably because of all of these things that last year we were voted one of the best places to eat in the country by the Dining Guide.
What is the main course? What is the style that characterises this restaurant?
Fricska has been a burger place for years, and it was only last year that we changed that when we rewrote the backbone of the menu. The focus is still on burgers, but we've added barbecue, smoke-broiled dishes and a good bit of comfort food. It's clear, clean and high quality. In the past, our statistics showed that 65-70 percent of the food sold was a burger, last year it was down to 50 percent. At the same time, we have added a number of dishes that have improved our statistics and transformed the sales list.
The burger is your own speciality, did you experiment with it? Or do you follow an established style?
Let's turn it around! We served almost 50,000 guests in the summer. It's a big job to prepare and hand-roll burgers for that many people, and it puts the staff to a level of food hygiene that very few restaurants in the country can match. It's almost a factory environment. We decided not to make the burger meat here, but to have it delivered to us from a family butchery in Pécs, based on our recipe. We selected the right breed of beef, the Blonde d'Aquitaine blond, we chose the mixing ratio, we defined the technological chain, we wrote the recipe, but all of this is used by someone else to make the product. Obviously it is more expensive than making it ourselves, but we save a lot of labour and we can comply more easily with food hygiene requirements. If we didn't do it that way, we would have to mechanise things in a way that I don't think would ever pay off. So you could say, yes. Our burger, our speciality.
What are your most popular dishes?
If you look at our statistics, the Fricska burger is still the most ordered burger, but the second most popular item is the burger with shredded meat - even in the winter months. This is followed closely by BBQ items.
Last year you were ranked 11th in the TOP list of the best restaurants in Lake Balaton, which is a very good result. Apart from doubling the capacity of the terrace, what other goals do you have?
Last year was the first year that Fricska made a profit in the winter season. In other words, we have finally gone beyond the bad practice of „ploughing back” into the restaurant in the winter what we made in the summer. We would obviously like to move even further ahead in the industry in the future, to be known by more people and to be included in the Dining Guide TOP 100. The restaurant is well placed to do this, and although we have young managers, they are all home-grown, professionally trained and humble enough. They lead their people well, a team that has been together for almost three years. So we don't change people, we don't let people go, and we certainly don't let anybody into our midst. Anyone who doesn't represent the values professionally, in appearance, in communication, that are good for us and good for the guests, cannot work with us.
From here, in the back left corner of the restaurant, you have a view of the Separé, a beautiful old two-storey building. This was a classic water mill with a huge mill wheel?
Yes, it was a mill with two mill wheels to be precise. The Frick mill is listed since 1473, and all the grain that needed to be milled was brought in from the area. The part of the mill where the power transmission rod that held the wheels came into the building is still open to the public, and groups come to see this curiosity.
How does the Separé, housed in this centuries-old building, work?
We tried to run the place as a rum bar for two years, and we wanted to build another brand of our own, Garat, alongside Fricska. Unfortunately, the place didn't work on its own, but as Fricska Szeparé, a part of Fricska that you have to reach, that you have to get, it became an absolute success story. It's sold out, it's a venue for family gatherings, birthday parties, corporate events, and we're planning a special here in the autumn, but let's keep that a secret for now.
The other problem is the lack of labour, which is mainly faced by restaurants in season. Wages have to be raised a lot to avoid this labour shortage crippling businesses. What is the situation in your country?
As I said, our core team has been stable for three years. Of course, we need to swell our numbers for the summer season, and we work with a lot of college students. Obviously, we don't employ them in positions that directly impact the guest experience, but having them here is a huge help. Our returning chefs for the summer are pretty much the same company year after year. They go abroad in the winter to try their luck. We are lucky because we have no or very minimal labour shortages and I hope that will be the case this summer. We have already taken the first steps towards this, as we will need approximately thirty-five people this summer, compared with 22 last year.
How optimistic are you about the start of the season?
At Fricska, we are always positive about things. We have it all, the location, the quality, the ambience, and a fantastic ownership background. We are happy to have satisfied customers and we can keep working to be even better. I think that's the basis of success.
