The area that includes the two main avenues and the surrounding streets has attracted the attention of the companies in the restaurant and coffee shop business lured by the tens of thousands of corporate employees working in the office buildings there and the people earning higher than average incomes who live in the north of the city.
Calea Floreasca – Barbu Vacarescu is also one of the busiest areas in terms of new real estate developments in the city, with office and residential buildings under construction such as Bucharest One office tower of Globalworth, the Oregon Park of Portland Trust and the City Point apartment buildings.
“The area has developed a lot in the past three years, when we opened in 2007 there were only the White Horse restaurant and Delicateria (the latter has since closed i.e.) nearby,” says Giulio da Sacco, owner of Grano restaurant.
The Italian entrepreneur says that in his opinion, the area is on the radar of the largest restaurant, coffee shop and bar operators. It has grown to about 25 such places, some of which specializing in Japanese, Italian or British cuisine, he added.
Grano’s neighbors are Turkish restaurant Divan, VacaMuu steak house, E3 by Entourage lounge and Rue du Pain. After the center of the area got crowded, investors opened up shop in nearby spaces. A new place that opened this year is Vivo burger bar, whose investors says they chose that particular location for their first restaurant in Bucharest because the area is constantly developing. They, like all the actors in the area, target the corporate employees working in the office buildings around the Aurel Vlaicu subway station. Most of them earn more than than the national average of EUR380, sometimes twice or three times more.
“After many years during which the Old Town and the Herastrau Lake area had been the main coffee shop and restaurant destinations, Floreasca is now developing in full gear. Investors are following the employees of the corporations in the area, who are the customers they target,” says Dani Caramihai, shareholder of the Fratelli group, one of the leading restaurant and bar operators. Fratelli has recently opened Fratellini on the ground floor of Ethos House office building on Calea Floreasca, and will inaugurate Uanderful in the same building this fall.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)