“I like business changes. I spent fifteen years in Bordeaux, fourteen at Bouscat, twelve at Ferret. For my 60th birthday in April, I wanted to open an original place where people would feel at home. A concept à la Ouvrard, with beautiful products well worked in a spirit of tradition combining classic and modern, while…
“I like business changes. I spent fifteen years in Bordeaux, fourteen at Bouscat, twelve at Ferret. For my 60th birthday in April, I wanted to open an original place where people would feel at home. A concept à la Ouvrard, with beautiful products well worked in a spirit of tradition combining classic and modern, while serving generous portions,” confides the restaurateur.
For the time being, Stéphane Ouvrard did not wish to communicate the exact address of his future sign, which will be installed on the edge of the boulevards, “close to a barrier”, he says. The establishment, which will open in April, will accommodate a maximum of forty covers, will be open four days a week and closed in July-August.
People and locals
After having held several brands in Bordeaux (Le Nouveau Saucier, the Hâ annex), the chef with forty-three years of experience reigned supreme over the evenings of the agglo for more than a decade with his Thursday afterworks evening at Père Ouvrard, inside the Villa Maria-Louisa, avenue de la Liberation, in Bouscat. A magnificent private mansion with an unusual decor reviewed and corrected in 2004 by the owner and his wife Marie, built in 1860 on behalf of the Portuguese consul. Set in a large garden with a small outdoor bar, the place took on the colorful air of a Bodega on certain evenings until the middle of the night.
“I wanted to open an original place where people would feel at home. A concept à la Ouvrard, with beautiful, well-crafted products »
But in 2017, at the time of the tramway works, the duration of which had lengthened, he had decided to part with it, while retaining the walls of the business, by reselling his business to the owners of the Italian restaurants Murano, Hervé Charle, one of the founders of Cdiscount, and Fabrice Forstin. From his years at Bouscat, Stéphane Ouvrard retains vivid memories, including that of the day when, in 2013, he received a call from the police station telling him that one of his employees had stolen a llama from a passing circus in Bordeaux and taken the tramway with the animal that has become the famous Serge Le Lama.
Last April, the chef again surprised, by leaving his restaurant which was working like thunder on the coveted peninsula of Cap Ferret, sold under lease-management for five years to the Peppone catering group. Remember that in 2006, Stéphane Ouvrard bought La Conche, in the oyster-farming district of the peninsula, first transformed it into a Plancha bar and then, after an extension, expanded it into a restaurant. This table ferret-capienne had in turn become an essential place mixing local customers and people. It was not uncommon to come across Ardisson, Beigbeder, Delahousse and the Canet gang there, out of season, during the filming of the feature film “Les Petits Mouchoirs”. Host Julien Courbet, another Cap Ferret addict, had also invited the restaurateur to his program “Capital” on M6 devoted to successful recipes, summer 2020.
