When an abandoned boat becomes a cosy pop restaurant
The Café Oz chain opened a unique new bar-restaurant at the beginning of the summer. Located on a former abandoned ship, its lengthy renovation was orchestrated by interior designer David Dalidec.
It's a jewel box you don't usually see rising from the ground, or rather from the river. Located in the Bassins à flot district of Bordeaux, next to the Garonne River, this new establishment has a very special history. The Café Oz group, which already owns a number of establishments, wanted to give a modern bar-restaurant a new lease of life on an old boat that had almost become a wreck. To achieve this, they teamed up with David Dalidec's agency. The latter was tasked with transforming the ship "Ville de Bordeaux" into an "Oz Boat", the first of its kind.
27 months of work for an almost century-old boat
Restoring the Eiffel-built vessel was no mean feat. All 850 square meters of the ship, mostly made of steel, had to be sifted through to check its condition. A titanic task, in which David Dalidec and his agency's team collaborated with companies from the Bordeaux region. The aim was to transform a nine-decade-old bin into a luminous, warm and festive setting, while respecting the environment. The man behind the transformation says that "on our scale, it's as if we'd built a little Eiffel Tower! The agency explains, meanwhile, the "reconditioning of around 700 square meters of old boat deck stock from French ports, to create the Oz Boat deck." She adds that she used a "double-flow central unit (rather than a conventional air-conditioning system), external blinds and wood-fiber insulation to cool and heat the boat." The entire renovation will have cost five million euros.
On the food and beverage side, the boat features a restaurant/bar open every day and a rooftop bar offering a beautiful view of the whole district. In the heart of this city nicknamed "la belle endormie", the Oz Boat is an exception, with an extensive DJ set schedule, which can be found on their website. For special occasions, the venue can also be privatized.
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