Some elements of the decor have been modified and the image of Colonel Sanders, emblem of the brand, has disappeared. But the design of the logo and packaging, with red and white stripes, is reminiscent of the KFC style.
"The brand is changing but the restaurant must keep its authenticity," Konstantin Kotov, co-owner of the Russian company Smart Service, which bought KFC restaurants from the American group Yum! Brands.
According to him, a hundred KFC restaurants are to be relaunched under the Rostic's brand by the end of the summer. In total, the American chain had more than 1,100 establishments in Russia, whose conversion will be gradual.
Since the beginning of the Russian attack in Ukraine and the economic sanctions against Moscow, many large Western companies have left Russia, for ethical reasons or because of difficulties in conducting their activities.
McDonald's restaurants, symbols of the arrival of American capitalism in Russia at the end of the USSR, and Starbucks cafes have also sold their local operations to Russian businessmen, but not the right to use their brand name.
Russian McDonald's were replaced last June by "Vkusno i totchka" and "Stars Coffee" cafes, supposed to replace Starbucks, opened in August. With a design and menus very close to their American predecessors.
For KFC, the transition is similar. Several dozen customers inaugurated Tuesday afternoon the new Rostic's opened in the center of Moscow.
"I don't feel any fear because of the departure of many brands (from Russia). We are in the twenty-first century, there is enough clothes, food and drink for everyone," said Valeria Varyguina, a 22-year-old engineer.
The menu at the new restaurants is identical to that of KFC, with two exceptions: Twister and Boxmaster sandwiches, including the company Yum! Brands holds the patents, will be renamed Chef-roll and Rostmaster, according to new co-owner Konstantin Kotov.
"Everything else on the menu will keep exactly the same names and price," he said.
A Rostic's restaurant chain once existed in Russia between 1993 and 2012, but its name was written in Cyrillic at the time. It had been bought by Yum! Brands and all its restaurants renamed KFC in 2012.
For many, the resurrection of Rostic's, which was the first fast food chain to open in post-Soviet Russia, therefore harks back to the first years after the fall of the USSR.
"It's a childhood memory, they were there before and they came back," said Yevgeny Lazarev, a 31-year-old computer scientist who came Tuesday to eat in Moscow's new Rostic's.
© 2023 AFP