La Volte

A French restaurant offering comfortable everyday dining, vintage tableware, a cozy and bright space, and meticulous attention to detail.

Exactly a year ago, the team from the "Agapa" restaurant in Yaroslavl met Andrei Vorobyev, a talented chef who was then leading the kitchen at the "Breakfast Ministry" project. After some time, we joined forces, and Andrei, along with part of the "Agapa" team, moved to Samara to open the French restaurant La Volte in the new "Imperial" residential complex. During lengthy discussions, hundreds of references, and meticulous planning, the core team began to envision what they wanted to create with this new project. We dreamed of a French restaurant offering comfortable everyday dining, where the aesthetics of the dishes and the surrounding space would be so simple, refined, and elegant that you would want to recreate it in your own home, like after visiting a museum. Inspired, we were eager to pick up our brushes and create our own masterpiece. Subsequently, with great care and attention to detail, we began to formulate our vision into words and share it with designers, architects, and the rest of the future team. La Volte is a lively, folk dance that originated in Provence but gained popularity at the French court during the Renaissance. During this dance, partners do not follow a strict choreography; many decisions depend on the couple themselves. However, the main feature of the dance is that the partner constantly lifts and spins the woman in the air. In fact, "volte" translates to "to spin." This dance is about energy, love, and freedom of expression. These emotions are what we have instilled and are nurturing in our project. The menu is divided into two services: brunch from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, which also includes French-style breakfasts, and an evening menu that is more refined and sophisticated, which we serve from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM. Between the services, we organize a one-hour break for the team, where we all gather around a table, have lunch, relax, learn, and simply chat. We chose French cuisine for three reasons: French sauces, broths, and recipes have been adopted by many cuisines around the world, including Russian cuisine. Therefore, this type of gastronomy is ingrained in us at a genetic level. We also value the attention to detail in selecting ingredients and the surrounding space: even in the smallest Parisian eatery, you will find a minimum level of service, and the quality of the ingredients will be high. "The ability to enjoy life." If we were in France, we would notice that people are happy during meals; they cherish this time, meet with friends for aperitifs, and then have dinner with their families, savoring the moment. Turning to the interior design, it is fair to start with the space. The open kitchen, including the preparation area, is complemented by a small Chef's Table, where our chef prepares a tasting menu for four people every Wednesday. The restaurant's dining room is a cozy and uncluttered space with interior design elements that evoke either the atmosphere of a traditional establishment or the name of the restaurant: a metal chandelier made of bent metal, resembling a woman's dress; a cardiogram of the dance, represented by dynamic lines that resemble the heartbeat of La Volte; and two paintings by young, ambitious artists, one of which is an abstract work filled with facades of Parisian houses, flowers, and elements of our interior, while the other is in black and white, depicting a table setting and conveying a sense of warmth and comfort. Another important element of our restaurant's concept is the vintage tableware. Paris is home to one of the largest flea markets in Europe, and searching for interesting and beautiful vintage items is a part of everyday life for many French people. As avid lovers of vintage, we have done a tremendous amount of work and have filled our shelves with antique tableware and tea sets, collecting them from grandmothers all over Russia, who were happy to share them with us, giving the tableware a new life after many years in storage.