The Port Olímpic will renovate all its restaurants with the aim of recovering the local public

The Olympic Port accelerates its transformation with the arrival of the America's Cup, the sporting event that is called to project the city as the Olympic Games did in their time. After starting the reform of the breakwater and the Mestral Dock, the City Council has decided to advance the last phase of the works, which will serve to renew the gastronomic offer of the marina, with the aim that everything is ready for when the nautical competition docks on the Barcelona seafront in 2024, thus cutting two years from the initially planned works schedule.

The consistory, through the municipal company B:SM, will allocate almost 16 million euros to transform the Gregal Dock, in the imagination of many Barcelonians, mainly, for the rice dishes they remember having eaten in its restaurants and its mythical marquees. Although an emblematic space of the city, the years had ended up taking their toll. For this reason, the action projected by the City Council will be total, giving it a new image and facilitating its integration with the city, allowing, for example, direct access from Nova Icària beach.

"They won't recognize it," warned this Tuesday the first deputy mayor, Jaume Collboni, in the presentation of the project. The architecture will draw on the new trends brought by the pandemic, with a preference for open, airy and bright spaces. The traditional structure will be maintained, with restaurants on two levels, but it will be made more accessible, with ramps and elevators. The walking and resting areas will also gain weight, taking up almost 70% of the available surface on the dock. Among the restaurants, there will be small squares with benches and shade. The latter will be generated thanks to the four photovoltaic pergolas that will crown the restaurants. "It will be the most important restoration operation in the city of the decade," Collboni remarked, taking into account that it will act on 24,000 square meters.

For her part, the general director of B:SM, Marta Labata, has indicated that the future gastronomic proposal of Port Olímpic will be made up of 14 spaces. On the upper level, there will be four restaurants, located on a cantilever over the sea, with views of Nova Icària that diners will think they are floating on the water. Below, there will be seven more restaurants, with open terraces overlooking the marina. In smaller premises that will result from the new configuration, in the squares that will be created between the restaurants and behind the stairs and elevators that will connect to the upper level, three gastronomic shops will open.

The different establishments will present a varied offer, with a clear commitment to Mediterranean cuisine and healthy and sustainable food, focusing on local and seasonal products. Obviously, rice dishes will not be missing. The premises will also adapt to the different audiences they can attract. "We hope that this transformation will be much more than a physical change of 24,000 square meters and that it will become an attractive proposal for the citizens of Barcelona and its visitors," Labata defended. "The Port Olímpic has to reconcile with the local public," Collboni added. Not only those who want to go to dinner or spend the day during the weekend, but all the workers that are expected to be brought by the reform being carried out on the neighboring pier, Mestral, where a blue economy hub will be created.

A total of 11 new restaurants will open, spread over two levels, and three gastronomic shops

The forecast is to reach the summer of 2024 with all works finished, creating a new space from which to enjoy the America's Cup. In fact, the sporting event will locate between one and two teams in the Port Olímpic. According to Collboni, it is contemplated that these will be the youth and women's teams, who will train in the competition for the first time from Barcelona.