Gaucho restaurant celebrates 21 years

By Erin Smith

Published: 23 January, 2015

This week marked another milestone for the Gaucho restaurant group, which has come along way since it opened its doors in London 21 years ago.

The first Gaucho opened in the basement of its current Piccadilly site in January 1994. Since then the restaurant, which now occupies all four floors of the original Gaucho restaurant, has grown to 14 sites across the UK and has opened a select number of locations overseas. Gaucho's have been opened in Buenos Aires, Hong Kong and Dubai.

Although primarily know for its steaks, the restaurant has also come to champion wines from Argentina and become well known for its well-trained and educated staff.

Gaucho GauchoGaucho celebrates 21 years of bring some of the Argentina's best beef and wines to the UK

Zeev Godik, Gaucho's founder and chief executive officer said: "Gaucho is an Argentine speciality restaurant. Argentine's love their beef, so of course beef is a big feature on our menus, and 92% of main courses ordered in our restaurants are beef, but Gaucho is an experience, it's our own style of exceptional service, professional hospitality, consistently good food of outstanding provenance."

Phil Crozier, Gaucho's director of wine, has been with the company since the beginning and helped to build the restaurant's now over 200-deep Argentinian wine list.

Phil Cozier Phil CozierPhil Cozier, Gaucho's director of wine

Crozier is, as a former colleague put it, "Pretty much one of the leading experts, if not the leading expert, on Argentine wine in the world."

Gaucho

Crozier also helps oversee the production of Gaucho's own wine produced from Gaucho's vineyards in Mendoza, Argentina's most well known wine producing region.

Viña Patricia, Gaucho's own wine Viña PatriciaGaucho's own branded wine is produced in Mendoza, Argentina called Viña Patricia

The restaurant undoubtedly has been part of and benefited from the recent rise in popularity in the UK of wines coming from Argentina. Argentina's total wine exports to the UK soared 36% in the first half of 2014, according to Wines of Argentina's European director Andrew Maidment in an interview with Harpers last year.

The breadth and quality of meats and wines have both been critical ingredients to making the Gaucho restaurant a success. But equally another critical ingredient to the restaurants success has been the focus on providing the customer with an exceptional experience.

"Ultimately it's about giving people a good time, and that means interaction," said Godik.

It also means a heavy emphasis on staff training, which is done through the organisation's own "Gaucho Academy."

Godik said: "Training staff properly is massively important to us. The Academy was set up by our Managing Director Tracey Matthews seven years ago. Every single potential employee, at every level, goes through several days of full-time training, and they have to pass some pretty tough 'cycle of service' and product knowledge exams before they come on board."