Barco — creative grill & wine bar opened in December 2014 on the Black Sea coast of Russia, in the Novorossiysk port city, close to the waterfront of Tsemesskaya bay. The name Barco — the Spanish word for ship, naturally took from urban landscapes — the bar is close to the promenade and sea port with ships, docks, cranes and other industrial elements of port infrastructure. Inspired by Barcelona and its amazing combination of classical modernism and aesthetics of the port city, we moved these principles into the interior of Barco — created a composition of industrial textures and supplemented it with glitter mirror surfaces and classic decoration.

In addition to interior design and corporate identity, in this project we came up with the gastronomic concept — creative grill, combined local traditions of Caucasian cuisine with a Mediterranean items and multiplied it all at liberty and experiments in the cooking process. Time for the project was a bit — from the initial design to the opening of the restaurant four months have passed, and the task was to use the most simple and rapid means to achieve expression. In a small, 120 m, space we wanted to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere with non-obvious allusion to the story of sea travel.

Actually, in Barco we mixed almost all of our favorite tricks: a little bit of Catalan modernism, an abundance of industrial elements, natural materials, different textures of wood, leather, iron, concrete, mirror surfaces associated with the rhythm pattern of metallic shelving and constructions for plants, warm light and vintage treasures, which we collected over few months at flea markets of Barcelona, Lisbon and small towns of Catalonia.

Part of the furniture and lighting was brought by the valencian factory Francisco Segarra and barcelonian Dadra, specializing in industrial furniture and some designed and manufactured specifically for the project. For example — six-meter mobile lighting construction that moves on the industrial tracks placed on the ceiling, providing the required distance for projection on the wall and slightly changing the configuration of the central landing zone. As well as wooden tables and sliding wooden panels on the front wall, with the mirror behind them — on the weekend’s they are opening, expanding the space of the room. In a small fireplace zone “captain’s cabin” we put a big cabinet to showcase our “trophies” – porcelain and metal dishes, marine prints, vintage maps and pipes. Clock on the wall shows the time our favorite port cities — Novorossiysk, Barcelona and Buenos Aires, and from a small window you can observe what is happening in the bar, while remaining undetected.

Design: Ample Studio / Anastasia Shvyryaeva / Alexander Sementsev
Photography: Alexander Sementsev