BARCA kitchen shipping container lifted off barge on Monday. Photo by Sara Dingmann
If you went down to waterfront this weekend, you may have noticed a crane towering over the pier at Robinson Landing.
The crane barge floated down the Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore and then up the Potomac to deliver two turquoise shipping containers that are part of a new Alexandria Restaurant Partner’s restaurant, BARCA Wine Bar & Pier.
On Monday morning, the shipping containers were moved from the barge to the pier for a portion of the restaurant. Both were custom made by Boxman Studios based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Partner Scott Shaw and other members of the team working on BARCA came down to the waterfront early Monday to watch the containers be set in place.
That first container put in place was for an open-air bar, featuring a bar counter wrapped around the structure. The sides of the container swing up at the bar height to open the bar and create an awning over patrons.
The second container, which was placed on the side facing the Potomac, will be the kitchen. The side facing the river proudly displays the restaurant’s name.
A permeant structure is not allowed on the pier, so ARP had to think outside of the box for creating a functioning space.
“Inspiration for using the shipping containers came from chiringutios along the beach in Barcelona,” Shaw said.
Chiringuitos are bars, typically a satellite location of another restaurant, located along the beach serving drinks and tapas. These structures are rectangular in shape, resembling shipping containers.
In Mediterranean beach fashion, the pier portion of the restaurant will be open during the waterfront’s busier months, March through September.
Outside of space at the bar there will be open air seating and fire tables surrounding the shipping containers. Retractable awnings will provide shade.
Off of the pier just steps away, will be the BARCA indoor wine bar. This intimate French, Italian and Spanish wine bar will be open year-round and serve the menu from the pier, as well as offer coffee and pastries in the morning, Shaw said.
BARCA is the companion restaurant to Ada’s on the River, which is named after Ada Lovelace, a famous mathematician and one of the first computer programmers.
“You plan out the theme of a restaurant, and then you have to figure out the identity. The celebration of women in STEM felt right in the age of Amazon HQ2,” Shaw said.
Along with the STEM theme, in the name of Ada’s ARP will be supporting Rosie Riveters, a nonprofit with the goal of empowering girls to be confident in fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
ARP will also be sponsoring a scholarship in Lovelace’s name at T.C. Williams high school for a female graduating senior going to school in science, technology, engineering or math.
BARCA Wine Bar & Pier is set to open this spring. Ada's is set to open this winter.
