#SeaFoodShareFood: Sharing, Ocean Basket's new conversation

Its heritage – the Mediterranean lifestyle and passion – and a love for seafood provides the foundations for the new branding, which is authentic, simple, fresh and contemporary. “It’s the real Mediterranean home of seafood,” says Jean Sloane, marketing director for OB.

She explains that globally, restaurants have become an integral part of our lifestyle. “It’s a place where people come to make and share memories. So for us it was important that our new store is a place where people can come to relax and feel at home.”

To support this positioning new design elements have been introduced, which include different styles of seating. “Our traditional fisherman’s chairs in different colours ensure freshness, while our bench seating encourages sharing and family time. “

Bold blue tiles and decorative stencilling on the walls with graphic elements such as waves, fish and anchors that create a friendly and attractive visual experience, while three new style cotton tablecloths with overlays resemble the stencilling on the wall.

A section has been created to house some iconic OB elements, with colourful pans and aprons that give the restaurant a homely feel while outside areas, where possible, are adorned by plants such as bouganvillias, lemon and bay trees to enhance the Mediterranean feel.

The new long sushi bar with signage alludes to the fact that all our sushi is freshly prepared, she adds.

New family tables decorated with beautiful mosaic designs play to sharing and conversation. It’s a chance to share more than food; to share news, warmth and love with your family she says. “Our emphasis on sharing, a core brand philosophy, goes to the heart of our epicurean philosophy – creating happiness through great food and wine, and good friends and family, all in a way that promotes the health of the planet.

This core philosophy is brought to life by a menu inspired by Mediterranean flavours that includes two new meze items that are ideal for sharing and a new of new starters from with battered mussels, prawn tails, firecracker squid, hummus, Mediterranean inspired salsa and potato dippers, to Zucchini fritters. For desert, there is the new warm baked pear and white chocolate pudding, or a generous slice of toffee nut pie.

For winter, there is also some delicious soup and fish cakes made from hake and snoek. “We are very aware that we need more sustainable options, so we have also introduced tilapia with a spicy butter and served with sweet potato coated in paprika. The snoek is also a SASSI approved fish (green list).”

She adds that the new menus are seasonal, so that they can focus on providing variety, giving the consumer something new and exciting to try.

To make the public aware of the new branding and menu options, the brand has used outdoor billboards and social media, on channels such as Facebook and Instagram. “Wonderful food experiences are shared these channels, and it is in line with sharing and conversation which we want to encourage,” says Sloane.

In keeping with this, the brand released a video about sharing and conversation.

Modern families don’t farm together, play music together or darn socks together anymore. Instead we text and whats app and message one another. This is actually very ineffective. When they sat next to each other, their answers to the same questions were often completely different and always contained far more interesting info than in the text. In global surveys, when teenagers are asked when they were most likely to talk with their parents, mealtime was their top answer and further research endorses the facts that children who eat with their parents have far better relationships with them and do better at school. Families that eat together, stay together – we’ve all heard the adage, but busy lifestyles often make what used to be a daily occurrence much more difficult to achieve.