Floating restaurant has an environmental message

VANCOUVER—Floating just offshore on False Creek, the Plastic Dining Room is no ordinary restaurant.

Conceived by Shannon Ronalds, co-founder of the charity School of Fish, the eating experience is around for just 60 days this summer.

The wooden raft holding a 12-seat dining table is supported by 1,700 empty 2-litre pop bottles, with the goal of making an environmental statement while serving a meal created by C restaurant executive chef Robert Clark.

“We wanted to do something different, with a lot of class and elegance. One of our goals is to educate the public on sustainable seafood,” Ronalds said.

Another purpose of the restaurant, which has just 720 spots available, is to encourage culinary schools to make education in sustainable seafood mandatory for students.

Ronalds said he wants to bring attention to the dangers of wildlife from discarded plastic bottles floating in the world’s oceans and what the garbage is doing to the health of the ecosystem and the fish that resides there.

The Plastic Dining Room is located adjacent to C Restaurant, where Ronalds worked 12 years ago. Getting Clark on board to create the six-course sustainable menu was an obvious choice. Only British Columbia wines are being served. 
Diners pay $195 to $215 each to feast on crispy Humboldt squid, smoked trout salad, seared scallops, hazelnut crusted salmon, apple tarte tatin and local artisan cheese.

Ronalds said he and one other person are the only staff serving guests at the restaurant, which Ronalds hopes will raise $100,000 for School of Fish by the end of Plastic Dining Room’s life.

At the end of September, the raft will be dismantled and the bottles and reclaimed pine floor decking are to be recycled.

There is a possibility the floating restaurant could return to Vancouver next summer and Ronalds said he’s already received calls of interest to take the project on the road.

The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas is interested in mooring the raft in the pond outside the hotel to created their own floating restaurant.