Restaurateur · Entrepreneur · Expert
Restaurateur from Ukraine. Founded Luini and Luidze on the Costa del Sol. Helping open and grow restaurants in Spain.
From idea to first guest: concept, location, team, operating model.
Food cost, labour cost, EBITDA — tuning the financial model for sustainable profit.
Hiring, onboarding, motivation and retention in a high-turnover industry.
Developing service standards and loyalty programs to grow average check.
Process audit and rebuild: kitchen, floor, logistics, suppliers.
Opening a restaurant in a foreign country without language or contacts. Personal experience: Ukraine → Spain, three venues from scratch.
Nikolay Nikitenkov shares his firsthand experience of opening a restaurant in Spain as a Ukrainian immigrant — from NIE paperwork to building a team and surviving the first months.
The story of opening Luini — the Italian restaurant in San Pedro de Alcántara that became the foundation of a hospitality group on the Costa del Sol.
How Nikolay Nikitenkov launched Luini San Pedro — an Italian trattoria in San Pedro de Alcántara — from scratch in a foreign country in 2023, with no Spanish and no local network.
Restaurant open since 2023. Became the foundation for Luini El Fuerte and the wider Luini group. Established the operational model replicated across the brand.
