Riccardo Giraudi and the philosophy behind Beefbar

Riccardo Giraudi built a global empire from an ancient and apparently simple element: meat. Twenty years after creating Beefbar, the Monaco-based entrepreneur of Genoese origin continues to redefine desire at the table by turning prime cuts into a language of contemporary lifestyle. It is not only about gastronomy but about identity, aesthetics and behaviour, concepts Giraudi handles with the ease of someone who looks at restaurants with the same eye he would bring to the great fashion houses.

Beefbar began with an intuition that at the time sounded almost improbable. Betting on meat as a premium product, on a continent not used to seeing it that way, demanded vision and timing. When Europe opened to imports of non-European premium beef, Giraudi was ready. First came American Black Angus, then Japanese Wagyu, and with them the consolidation of a concept that joins product excellence, calculated informality and strikingly designed rooms. Today, with more than 40 venues in cities including Paris, London, Milan, Monte Carlo and Dubai, Beefbar is a global reference and, for the third consecutive year, tops the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants ranking in the international groups category.

The Beefbar experience goes beyond the plate. The menu converses with cuisines from across the world, from Japanese robata to Italian pasta, always with meat as the common thread. Kobe jamón, Wagyu carbonara and cuts cooked over fire sit alongside a presentation designed to seduce the eye as well. For Giraudi, aesthetics are inseparable from the experience. Instagram is not just a shop window but an extension of the brand, a place where every detail communicates a desirable way of living: sophisticated, and accessible in just the right measure.

You have to tell a story, provoke emotion and make the customer recognise themselves in that universe.

Riccardo Giraudi

Learning from fashion

That reasoning explains the closeness between gastronomy and fashion in his career. Giraudi makes no secret of drawing more inspiration from fashion houses than from other restaurants. He watches how desire is built, how storytelling sustains perceived value and how aesthetic coherence keeps audiences of different generations loyal. The result is a restaurant where you can eat a hamburger in a refined setting, come back every day without tiring of it and share dishes, reviving a deeply Italian ritual.

The brand’s twentieth anniversary also marks a new phase of expansion and diversification. Openings are planned in destinations including Courchevel, Marrakech, Cortina, Comporta and Istanbul, always with obsessive attention to location, which Giraudi considers decisive for the success of any project. In parallel, he is widening his portfolio with initiatives that include pizza, pasta and collaborations with fashion brands, among them the art direction of Lacoste’s new bars and restaurants, positioned in the premium segment and designed to speak to a contemporary visual and digital universe.

Despite the global scale, Giraudi keeps a direct and unidealised view of the sector. Restaurants, he says, are a business of narrow margins and constant risk. When it works, it earns little. When it fails, you lose a lot. Even so, it is precisely that tension that drives him to experiment, adjust and keep the brand young. The challenge is not to repeat proven formulas but to surprise an audience that grows up with the brand and now includes the children of its first customers.

At the centre of it all is the creation of desire. For Giraudi, that is what fashion, gastronomy and lifestyle have in common. Technical quality or rare ingredients are not enough. You have to tell a story, provoke emotion and make the customer recognise themselves in that universe.

Twenty years on, Beefbar remains less about meat than about the way we choose to experience pleasure at the table in the contemporary world.

WAYFARER