The restaurant has been completely curated and reinvented: the old room and the bar have been completely dismantled, as well as the wall coverings and partitions, offering a blank page to rethink the space. Restructuring works have made it possible to free the ceiling height, by removing many secondary beams, thus offering an additional 80 to 90 cm where the golden ceilings are today. who reinvents the chic bistro in Nice.
After «Rouge» and «Le Napoléon», Gauthier Creissard and Alexandra open their third address in Nice.
A setting designed by Mickaël Gouret, interior architect and designer, MGID (Mickaël Gouret Interior Design), a creative studio dedicated to hostellerie and catering.
Facing the Notre-Dame Basilica, the old Lebanese institution «Le Socrate» becomes «Le Central», a bistro at heart, but reinvented with elegance: classic French cuisine sublimated by the chef, like a decoration that combines tradition and modernity.
It took audacity to transform Le Socrate, a Niçoise address with Lebanese accents, into a place that exudes bistronomy. Under the impetus of the chef, Le Central is today a gastronomic scene where every detail tells a story, between heritage and modernity.
Behind this renaissance, a common thread: to restore the soul of great French bistros while breathing new life into them.
The space first tells about the warmth of wood. A satin-lacquered walnut, crafted by Solomas, lines the walls with its deep reflections. More than a covering, it composes a real architecture, where classic moldings and profiles meet current lines. This noble material, omnipresent, evokes the European tradition of brasseries and Haussmanian apartments, while affirming a contemporary gesture. Even the facade takes up this choice, a rarity in the Niçois landscape: a molded wood, punctuated with ancient appliques and an illuminated «Eiffel» blind, as a nod to Paris.
Then comes the pictorial immersion. On the walls, a decor signed Nobilis envelops the space. Baptized Bosquet, this wallpaper in natural fibers deploys its forest landscapes in a khaki palette animated with orange shades. A subtle reinterpretation of the frescoes and tapestries that once adorned elegant breweries.
The space unfolds like a canvas, multiplied by mirrors, while the ochre and orange velvet benches harmonize with the vegetal and subdued palette.
Above, a golden sky: two ceilings dressed in gold leaf by Séverine and Mélanie Wurmser. Five days of meticulous work to compose a bright and vibrant surface, which captures the slightest variation in light.
In the evening, this adornment diffuses a precious shine, revealed by marble appliques and crystal photophores, creating an atmosphere that is both soft and spectacular.
At the center of the space, the carved tin bar, adorned with friezes and punctuated by brass details. Everywhere, polished brass sets the rhythm of the table hoops, moldings and glass racks, while marble comes to sublimate the nobility of the materials. Each element tells its own story, while participating in a harmonious and coherent composition.
And then, those details that make the difference: the bistro chairs adorned with velvet patties tied with a ribbon, like a tribute to the cafes of yesteryear; two large shelves teeming with antique objects – chocolate moulds, ancient scales, anatomical plates, forgotten cookbooks – as if every room whispered a memory.
By revisiting the language of the bistro, «Le Central» celebrates the art of the table with elegance and character, in a place designed as an experience. A Niçois setting that combines memory and modernity, in the light of a golden evening.