At the dacha in the style of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, he takes his grandchildren on a carousel with the Cheshire Cat and the Dodo bird and treats guests to homemade steaks: for the July gastronomic issue, we visited the country feasts of our newsmaker friends.
The owner of the estate near the coast of the Gulf of Finland initially intended to make it unique and strictly individual - he realized long ago that he does not see himself either in neoclassical mansions "a la Palladio", or, even more so, in brick castles with towers and loopholes, which the suburbs of St. Petersburg were abundantly overgrown with in the 1990s. So, Teplitsky built his city apartment with a transparent ceiling and a huge billiard room eighteen years ago, starting from the atmosphere of the paintings of Salvador Dali.
The idea for a country residence came to Arkady Yuryevich's mind when in 2010 he saw Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Of course, he did not set himself the task of copy-pasting a film with Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska - the house and garden are decorated based on a Hollywood blockbuster. The sequence and dimensions of the rooms, their height and design were thought out by the owner himself, for the development of facades he involved his friend, the architect Alexander Suponitsky, and the engineering and technical part of the work was carried out by professionals from numerous companies, experience with which Teplitsky gained during the construction of shopping and entertainment complexes holding "Adamant" and own restaurant chain Maximilian Brauhaus.
Friends and colleagues of Arkady say that this house of 1450 square meters, which has a lot of air and light, with huge floor-to-ceiling windows unusual for the St. Petersburg climate, is very similar to its creator - an open and hospitable person. The mixture of the real and the phantasmagoric borrowed from Burton's film can be seen in everything: the marble floor in the main hall resembles a chessboard, the columns with classical capitals have metal plinths, the rounding staircase is framed on one side by ordinary railings, and on the other - glass, huge flowers.
To create a "Wonderland" on a plot of half a hectare the businessman invited specialists from the landscape bureau, who decided on the entrance area in the form of a round square with a fountain that reacts to the movements of guests, supplemented it with a cocktail area and a stage for concerts and holidays, as well as a pond through which a path of "floating" on the water was thrown concrete slabs. Just behind the house is a karaoke bar, which is reached by arches of linden trees. A custom-made carousel with figures of the twins Tweedledum and Tweedledum, the March Hare and other characters of Lewis Carroll is installed in the clearing in front of the facade - of course, it enjoys predictable success with the grandchildren of Arkady, the children of his daughter Anna, a teacher at the Faculty of Journalism of St. Petersburg State University. And then a fabulous labyrinth begins: an alley of molded spherical apple trees leads to a garden with oak and a transparent table for crazy tea parties, then the sandstone path narrows and rises, and the pergolas surrounding it decrease in size - you can feel for yourself what Alice experienced when bit off a pie with the inscription "Eat me" and turned into a giantess.
Crouching and squeezing into the neighboring garden, you find yourself in a space with brick paving, low linden trees with sheared crowns, psychedelic lamp mushrooms and crooked mirrors. Card games can be played in a classic rotunda in the middle of a nearby white rose garden, and the labyrinth culminates in a granite chessboard with giant queens and knights surrounded by green rooks and molded thuja pawns. All this splendor, which gardeners from the landscape bureau come to look after several times a month, causes constant delight among the guests and brings pleasure to the customer - Teplitsky says that every morning, waking up, he catches a buzz from what he sees around.
Steak
- Remove the chilled meat from the vacuum packaging and leave for a couple of hours so that it absorbs room temperature.
- Then, on one side of a piece 2.5–3 centimeters thick, squeeze a clove of garlic, put a piece of butter and thyme.
- Heat one pan to 180 degrees, and the other to 120. In the first one and a half minutes on each side, fry the meat to clog it - a crust should form through which the juice will not flow out. And then in the second pan for 4–4.5 minutes on both sides, bring the steak to readiness.
- You can use the Argentine method, in which the meat is cooked on an inclined grate above the grill: first at the bottom, and then gradually raising it. Grapes marinated in wine will be a great addition to a juicy steak.
Arkady Yuryevich calls himself a gourmet, but having traveled to hundreds of restaurants around the world, he still considers barbecue and steak to be the main specialties of the country table, which he likes to cook himself, although his home cook Dilya is a general professional. She perfectly prepares Uzbek dishes, she adopted the recipes of the Odessa-Jewish table from the mother of the owner of the house, and learned Thai and Mexican cuisine from the chefs of Teplitsky's restaurants. With us, the vice-president of the Adamant holding shared the most important secret great steak - you don't know it yet? Here it is: for a good steak, first of all, you need good meat.
Photo: Valentin Bloch
Text: Vitaly Kotov
Style: Jane Sytenko
Stylist assistant: Anastasia Stolbneva
Make-up and hairstyle: Maria Surikova
In the 1990s, Arkady Teplitsky stood at the origins of "civilized trade", when he, together with business partners, began to transfer trade from markets and fairs to shopping and entertainment centers. The company's first fuel dispenser was "Balkansky" near the metro station "Kupchino", it started operating in 1994. Now total area commercial real estate in the portfolio of "Adamant" is more than 1.5 million m2.
In addition to business, Arkady Teplitsky is also engaged in social activities. He became one of the trustees of the World Club of Petersburgers, as well as Teplitsky - Vice President charitable foundation"Regional Jewish Congress in St. Petersburg".
By his own admission, Arkady Teplitsky, to graduate from the Institute of Engineers railway transport failed the first time. He was expelled from the institute, and he had to recover in order to still get a diploma.
Arkady Teplitsky owns 22% in the Adamant holding, which is engaged in the construction and management of commercial real estate. However, this is not his only business - the entrepreneur also develops his own chain of Maximilian Brauhaus restaurants, which, as a rule, are located in the holding's complexes.
Arkady Teplitsky came into business at the age of 27 - then he decided to engage in trade. His first large-scale project was a fair at the St. Petersburg Sports and Concert Hall, which was also organized by the businessman's current partner, Igor Leitis. Businessmen did not stop at one fair and opened several more markets in different parts of the city.
After that, the entrepreneurs decided that it was time to organize "civilized" trade in St. Petersburg, moving it from the streets to comfortable complexes. So in 1992, the Adamant holding appeared, the first store of which opened at 8 Sovetskaya, 9. And the first shopping mall of the company - Balkansky near the Kupchino metro station - started operating in 1994.
Now the total area of commercial real estate in the portfolio of "Adamant" is more than 1.5 million m2.
He took 30th place in the "Rating of billionaires - 2015", the state was estimated at 29 billion rubles.
How the fortune of a billionaire has changed in 2016
The main asset of Arkady Teplitsky is 22% in the Adamant holding, largest owner commercial real estate in St. Petersburg. At the end of last year, the company put into operation the 2nd stage of the Victoria Plaza business center with an area of 46.3 thousand m2. In May 2016 - distribution center in Shushary for X5 Retail Group with an area of 28.1 thousand m2. The total volume of the holding's commercial real estate exceeds 1.5 million m2. More than 260 thousand m2 of retail real estate is at the construction and design stage.
Arkady Teplitsky came into business at the age of 27 - then he decided to engage in trade. His first large-scale project was a fair at the St. Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex, which was also organized by the businessman's current partner Igor Leitis (No. 30). Teplitsky also has catering business. He develops the Maximilian Brauhaus chain.
Everyone I managed to ask about him said: "Teplitsky? A very serious person. Be careful." Maybe they don't know him well? Didn't you ask them? First of all, Teplitsky is a cheerful person - he sat him down at the table, joked, treated him to coffee, poured cognac, smiles, waves his hands in pathos, suggests: "Let's just talk." However, his gaiety does not negate his seriousness.
“I don't think I'm serious in the usual sense of the word. For me, "serious" means: burdened with worries, drowned in many plans and, probably, will hardly be able to enjoy life. I know a lot of such people, they inspire unconditional respect in me: as a rule, they are hard-working people, very integral and successful. But due to the seriousness of their deeds and intentions, it seems to me that they miss the gaiety and joy of life, they forget how good it is sometimes to play tricks, and even to misbehave. Therefore, when they say: "A serious person," I imagine a strict figure in a suit and tie. I'm not like that anyway.
- What is it?
– I have to a large extent freedom. I can sometimes afford to take unplanned steps. Although, as a rule, the more serious a person is, the more obligations he has, the higher position he occupies, the less freedom he has.
Did you have a crazy youth?
- Ordinary youth of the eighties: I entered LIIZhT, I was successfully kicked out of it, I was recovering and eventually received the specialty of a civil engineer.
What do you like to remember about your childhood?
- I know that I don’t like it: about how I was forced to make music. I didn’t really like school, because I had to travel to it. But in general, my parents are very cheerful people, noisy companies always gathered at our house. Therefore, since my youth, it has become a tradition that it was more interesting for me to communicate not with peers, but with those who are older.
- They say that people who went through difficulties in their youth, later succeed very well in business ...
– In my case, these were the difficulties of a whole generation and the whole country. We were all hungry and when the opportunity arose, everyone rushed to realize themselves. My difficulties at that time were similar to the problems of an ordinary young man of that time: there is always little money, and even they can be taken to the army.
- How did your business start?
- I was very lucky. At some point, all the institute friends went into business at once. When each of us succeeded in our business, we met and merged into a single company. So my current partners are also my institute comrades. It helped us a lot to stay afloat. Friendship in harsh times supported. And I started with casting candles as part of a cooperative.
Why do you respect people?
- I have more respect for what I've done. I am convinced that behind a person there should be not so much words and behavior as deeds and deeds that a person has committed in his life.
- What is work for you?
“It's a way of life and a game. Some people have already earned a modest income for the rest of their lives. But at the same time, we see - and this is the most amazing human trait - that no one can stop. It seems that everything is there - an apartment, a car, income, but it is not enough for a person. Because after a certain level, business turns into a game.
Just like in a casino: luck - failure, turned away - did not turn away, bet so much or more, guessed it - did not guess - people do not enjoy the result, but the game. This is the eternal human desire for victory and success. When a financially prosperous person says that he works twelve hours a day, the normal question arises: "Why?" And there can be only one answer: it's a game.
Is everyone playing?
- This is especially developed in a man. It always has a winner complex: "I have to win!" No one can answer the question for me: what difference does it make whether a person has ten million dollars or fifty? This has practically no effect on the standard of living: you can buy the same cars, go to the same restaurants, live in good houses and the best hotels. But the one who has ten will say that he needs twenty-five, and when they appear, he will say that he needs fifty, and so on ... Whether this is good or bad, I don’t know, but it is.
Are you ready to risk everything in this game?
- Not. I'm not exactly excited. I love to play, but I don’t want to start over - and this is the answer to the question why I will never become rich. Wealthy are those who can stake everything. I don't want to risk too much. My life suits me, I don't need to be five times richer. I read a lot, I travel a lot, I value my freedom. You know, it often happens that business is not our slave, but we become slaves of our business. Any further growth may limit freedom.
So you've already achieved everything?
– No, of course, and in no case do I want to stop, but I will work within the framework that I have set for myself. I don't think you should spend your life proving that you can get even richer.
- Are you scared in life? And if so, how do you deal with fear?
- As one of my comrades says: "One should only be afraid of the wrath of the Lord."
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