• Ivan Kukarskikh and Bogdan Panchenko – founders of Lucky Group


    Having traveled around Europe and gained experience, Bogdan and Ivan consciously moved towards the restaurant industry. Ivan opened the first BB Burgers project in 2013. Bogdan, helping his partner and close friend, was simultaneously engaged in supplying vegetables and fruits from Russian cities to large companies in the capital.
    In the fall of 2017, together with brand chef Glen Ballis, was opened a joint project Margarita Bistro on the corner of Malaya Bronnaya street.
    There are now 15 restaurants in the Lucky Group, which are united by values, attention to detail and most importantly – hospitality. In addition to restaurants, Lucky Group develops the areas of events, catering, training services and merch.
  • Dmitry Volkov – COO


    Dmitry started his career in restaurant industry in 2010 from a waiter's assistant position in the restaurant chain "Coffemania", where he worked for 8,5 years, having gained extensive management experience in staff training and management. Dmitry has opened the Greek restaurant Eva, Russian cuisine restaurant Niki. Then he worked as a territorial manager of Niki, Eleven, All Day. The main thing in work is the team, where everyone shares the same life values, loves their work, loves people and enjoys what they do.
  • Glen Ballis – Brand chef


    Born in Australia, upon finishing culinary school, Glen worked eight years domestically before moving to Southeast Asia, where he spent the next twenty years fine tuning his trade, before moving to London. In 2006, he was offered a position to open a restaurant in Moscow and he never looked back. From there, he has positioned himself as a business partner with some of Moscow's top restaurants, renowned for their delicious tastes and eclectic styles. In addition, Ballis owns three restaurants in Singapore, which are managed by his son.
  • Maxim Gorelik – Chef Bartender

    Has been in the industry for 10 years. He started his career in Krasnoyarsk (2011-2012), then worked in bars in St. Petersburg (2013) with the future founders of the Imbibe bar. In 2014 he moved to Moscow and worked at one of the first Speak Easy in Russia - Jack Rose, then joined the team of Bruce Lee Bar (former Belka Bar), where six months later he became a bar manager at the age of 22. In 2016, he had experience in bar consulting, and at the beginning of 2017 he joined the team of opening the Cevicheria restaurant. In mid-2017, he received an offer to open a new project Margarita Bistro as a bar manager. A year later, he opened Lucky Izakaya Bar, afterwards - Eva and Loro, thereafter he became the chief bartender of the new restaurant group Lucky Group.

    Since 2017 he is also part of the Bacardi - Martini family. Since September 2017, he was the trade ambassador of Bacardi - Martini in Moscow. Since January 1, 2022, he has been the Patron tequila brand ambassador in Russia and Eastern Europe.

    Included in the Top 10 Russian bar managers according to Barproof 2017-2018 and the Top 3 Russian bar managers according to Barproof 2019-2021.

    Now he is a speaker at various restaurant and bar venues in Russia, such as the Roman Toroschin Training Center, Gastreet Show, Moscow Food Academy.

    The ideologist of the educational bar community at Lucky Group - Lucky Bar Skills.

  • Olga Samoylova - Head manager


    Despite acting education and experience in this field, she began her career as a waiter at the age of 19. Later she shifted the vector of development, replacing dreams of an Oscar award with dreams of Michelin stars. She worked in management positions in the companies Ginza, Semifreddo, 354 exclusive height. From the moment it opened, Olga went to her favorite Margarita Bistro for breakfast and dinner, and then received an invitation to work as a manager, later becoming a manager there. “For me, there is nothing more pleasant than seeing guests return again and again for the smiles of the restaurant staff and giving them back. It was as if they had come to see friends whom they missed very much.”
  • Dmitry Nikitin - Chef


    He started his career in 2014 in Moscow at the “Fahrenheit” restaurant as a chef assistant (then the cook and the foreman of the hot shop). In 2018 he worked as a sous-chef at Choice. Healthy Social Club. In a year, he became part of the Margarita Bistro, where he went from sous-chef to chef. He believes that the main thing in his work is a strong team spirit. It is also important to give your love to guests in every dish.
  • Alexander Maltsev - Bar Manager

    Alexander Maltsev started his career back in 2018 in the Oryol region as a bartender. After working for a year, he decided to move to Moscow. He was waiting the occurrence for bartender vacancy at Margarita Bistro restaurant for 5 months. In March 2020, he became part of the Lucky Group team as a bartender. Two years later, he took up the position of bar - manager at Margarita bistro.

© Margarita, Malaya Bronnaya St 28