transformation as guest experience

In the food industry, new places open almost every day. But only a few manage to generate the kind of word-of-mouth that sounds like this: “It’s good. It’s different. You have to try it.”

So when we started hearing the same phrases about a newly opened café, we knew something interesting was happening — and worth sharing.

Today, we’re talking about internet cafe — a space co-founded by a well-known artist and a chef, built around Asian fusion cuisine. Yet internet cafe is neither fully a café nor quite a restaurant. It is a listening bar, located at 54 Uzunadze Street, inside a historic building.

There was a time when good food alone was enough for success. Today, the idea is what matters most.

Around that idea, everything must align: concept, menu, service, interior, music, and guest experience — all telling one cohesive story.

We wanted to look at this project exactly through that lens:

How does an idea become a concept?
How does a concept become an experience?
And ultimately, how does that experience become a brand?

To explore this transformation, we spoke with the founders — Maxime Machaidze and chef Luka Verulashvili.

the idea

Maxime Machaidze:

“Since childhood, I wanted to have my own café or restaurant. Three months ago, I started looking for a space — and found one that tied everything together in my mind."

The name internet cafe has long existed in Maxime’s personal universe — referenced in his tracks, and even as a location in one of his short stories. The space itself used to be a literal internet café. When the city became fully digitized and internet access turned universal, the place lost its original function. The owner learned to bake cakes to keep the business alive.

A transformation without changing the façade. And that, as Maxime explains, is what fascinates him — internal transformation.

“I’m drawn to inner shifts — when the outside stays the same, but internally everything changes. It’s similar with people. We may look identical from the outside, yet our inner world transforms completely. That’s what happened with internet cafe.”

There is also irony in the name. And, as he says, where there is no humor, there is little value.

the place

The building itself carries history. It is the former home of Bertha von Suttner — Austrian writer and the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.  After the Suttner family left, the building housed a German clinic, later multiple other functions, and before internet cafe, a Japanese restaurant. Maxime didn’t erase what was there. He built his design on top of the existing one — another layer in the building’s transformation.

 

the concept

internet cafe is built on the listening bar concept. Unlike traditional bars, where music plays in the background, here music is the protagonist. Conscious listening is the main activity.

Listening bar culture originates from Japan — specifically from jazz kissa cafés, where people gathered intentionally to listen to albums because high-quality audio systems were rare in private homes.

Today, listening bars are resurging globally — and not by accident. Vinyl culture is trending again. And in an era of constant scrolling, spaces offering a slow experience feel both rare and magnetic — especially when most bars compete through noise.

At internet cafe, each day carries a different genre. Music is not decoration. It is structure. It is identity. The experience becomes more than service — it becomes brand architecture.

transformation as brand identity

As Maxime explains, internet cafe is fundamentally guest-experience-driven:

 

“When I go somewhere, I want to transform. I want the space to shift my mood, to recharge me so I can leave and change the world. I want internet cafe to offer that kind of experience.”

Outside the kitchen, he takes on nearly every function himself. He speaks to guests constantly, asks for feedback, listens carefully. Because spaces like this are built on dialogue.

“Through this process, I grow too. I learn across different mediums and transfer knowledge from one to another.”

This is not just hospitality. It is co-creation.

the menu

Gastronomy is part of the experience architecture — which makes the kitchen just as important as the atmosphere.

Chef Luka Verulashvili developed the menu. Although he hadn’t previously worked in an Asian restaurant, he embraced the opportunity to experiment — combining Asian flavors with European techniques.

“When I met Max and saw the space, I immediately said yes. Collaboration with someone who understands you — and whom you understand — is decisive.”

Luka is driven by experimentation and rejects the standard and mainstream.

“In culinary tradition, everything is supposed to be perfectly balanced — acidity, saltiness, heat, texture. I prefer exaggerating one component. I’m drawn to intensity. So here, I cook what I personally believe in — not what is conventionally accepted.”

The goal was Asian fusion — but not repetition. Simple. Slightly nostalgic — though not Georgian nostalgia. Familiar and foreign at the same time.

And, importantly, unified with the overall concept — from interior to staff uniforms to social media.

what works?

In today’s food industry, the idea works. Menu. Interior. Concept. Music. Service. Guest experience. Their synthesis defines quality.

We should also add the people behind the space — particularly Maxime, whose personal brand influences the visibility of his projects. Yet he believes internet cafe has the potential to build its own community:

“You can go somewhere with average food but great atmosphere and enjoy it. Or the food can be excellent, but the environment makes you uncomfortable. I try to make the dining experience great — and the music, and the interior. When you synthesize everything, the space earns its quality.”

Guests don’t have to know him. They might simply enjoy the music. The food. The atmosphere. They might find themselves inside a space he created.

 

And that is the point.

 

internet cafe is not a place you visit only for cuisine. You sit. You listen — truly listen. You allow yourself to slow down.

And maybe, suddenly, Maxime approaches and asks how your evening feels — or what you would change (that happened to us).

In the end, it is the synthesis — idea, concept, name and its story, interior, menu, music — that defines internet cafe.

Not just a new place in Tbilisi. A new transformational experience.