The Hard Rock café in Marseille’s Cours d’Estienne d’Orves has just closed after just three years in business. Apparently it was Europe’s largest Hard Rock but didn’t attract sufficient clientele to fill the place.
According to La Provence, it has been ‘un incroyable fiasco’.
Initially expectations were high for lots of business from tourists off the cruise ships, but of course the restaurant was situated on the far side of the Vieux Port, well away from these visitors who only spend around four hours in town. And the opening of Les Terrasses hardly helped.
The restaurant changed hands and the new management wanted to attract locals…but by this time the novelty value had diminished.
The company had invested 6 million euros to transform what was the ‘anciennes boulangeries royales’ where food was produced for the workers at the nearby ship-building Arsenal. It will be interesting to see what happens to this lovely old building.
aixcentric 
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