Top service blended with supreme groceries, principally sea food have become brand of the restaurant Gariful and desiderata for house delicacies have led to a new restaurant service providing not only food and drinks delivery, but a complete custom made service during Hvar dream vacation
Croatian restaurant Gariful has been for years the jewel of Croatian and Hvar catering world offering service level and food quality that matches elite clientele requirements pilgriming the island via land or sea. Yachting population is fond of the town of Hvar and guests sailing on the most luxurious boats in the world have chosen Gariful as their ‘resort’. Even the berth run by the Hvar port authorities located at so called Punta rive in Hvar is chiefly highly wanted due to this restaurant. Yacht guests have become devoted to this place perceiving such as their second home.
It all derives from hard work of relatively young owner Ivan Gospodnetić, together with his team of associates. He planted the seeds and now enjoys the fruits of hard labour. What followed afterwards and opened up new business activity at Gariful does not have a direct connection to catering but with professional service standards Gariful achieves. Ivan Gospodnetić has answered his clients’ prayers even though this prototype does not share anything in common with the restaurant. So Gariful Yachts Supply and Yachts Charter were born.
Nevertheless fresh ingredients, mainly sea food served as the key point for the development of new activities. Ivan Gospodnetić shared his story with us: ‘We try to be stronger and grow every year and our fundamental activity focus is restaurant and catering. However Yachts Supply and Yachts Charter simply happened out of clients demands. It all started with easy requests like ‘get me some of that fish and a few lobsters aboard’ up to the sale of premium wines and champagnes so such assistance called for adequate engagement.’
Nevertheless you did not pursue it as an under-the-table activity, you actually founded a completely new enterprise?
Perfection is my thing, so I created a separate business. Joggling different activities leads to perfection deficiency meaning lower service quality resulting with poor budget. Yachts Supply has been around for two years and the peak of this operation is yet to come despite the great accomplishments so far. As of this year we have employed two girls providing concierge services and meeting our clients’ needs and requirements on Hvar.
We do not charge for this benefit, it is simply an extra service, starting from beach information, bars, to renting cars… this business branch has arisen out of constant guests enquires we try to fulfil in order to enable them a carefree enjoyment on Hvar. When it comes to sea enthusiasts and yachts, due to excellent relationship with Nautical Centre we can offer to our clientele berths next to the restaurant which I strongly recommend only at calm sea. Waves can cause trouble there but we warn our guests about that.
Your work encompasses more than yachts?
We also work with a lot of villas in Hvar. We deliver them our food. Special menus await this kind of audience. Upon their wish raw groceries are also sometimes delivered starting from fresh hard-to-find vegetables over to delicacies like caviar.
Can you be more specific on what you offer to your clients?
Gariful Restaurant Yacht Supply offers completely everything, the whole palette of services a yacht might need, beginning with babysitting care over to cars, planes, and speed boats transfer. We also offer more than 400 charter vessels from the smallest ones to the largest yacht ‘joyMe, the greatest charter yacht under the Croatian flag. Our central focus are food and groceries chiefly delicacies we serve at restaurant like fresh fish and ‘frutti di mare’.
Does such class of clients really need your help?
In the zenith of season it is hard to get fresh sea food, especially to somenone who is not a domestic soul. Since we have been for a long time in this business we owe seven boats catching fish for us, also enjoy other connections and friends so we have easy access to fresh food. We can satisfy any wish or desire. We also enjoy a good reputation for premium wines which we furnish to our clients upon their demands. Our wine list contains wine sorts from all over the world, Australia, both Americas, Europe, even Germany bringing along their fans and we effortlessly obtain bottles we do not contain in our offer. Very popular are Chablis and Motrachet of different labels and champagnes like Crystal, Dom Perignon White Gold… When it comes to Croatian wines Grgić plays fashionable role.
What area range does your delivery cover?
Deliveries of prepared dishes stretch across Hvar Aquatorium mostly wanted are meals from our menu. Raw food and other products can be delivered from Zadar to Dubrovnik.
What do guests pick from your menu?
Food served here is exclusively of Croatian origin. We tend to offer authentic and quality domestic food like homemade ’makaruni’ (nudels) from Korčula, a woman there makes them especially for us. During the season we collect wild Hvar asparagus matching splendidly with an array of our dishes. We bake octopus in many different ways, under the iron lid as ‘carpaccio’, guests really like it even though this is a plain dish. Our special combination Gariful means lobster and meat fusion, like ‘carpaccio’. We did not forget about healthy food, organic food fit for vegetarians and macrobiotics.