Tickets to dine on Nova Scotia's ocean floor sell out in 2 minutes

A Nova Scotia restaurant hasto do a lot more than just set out clean tableware for each new round of guests that dines on the bottom of Cobequid Bay.

For a limited time each summer, The Flying Apron Inn andCookeryin Summerville, N.S., serves lunch and dinner to guests on the ocean floorusing the six-hour window when the tide is out and the bottom of the bayis exposed.

Each dining service requires a "huge effort," including lugging tables, chairs, barbecues, coolers and food and drinks onto and offthe beach as the tide ebbs and flows, said co-owner Melissa Velden.

The dining-on-the-ocean-floor experience will be offered on five dates thisJuly and August, and the whole season sold out within two minutes of opening Monday morning.

"We never thought that from the beginning it would take off the way it has," said Velden.

"But yeah, it's captured the imaginations of people from all over the world."

Customers from Iowa, South Carolina, New Brunswick and Ontario flooded the phone lines looking for tickets to the coveted experience, which includes lobster,local wine, a foraging tour and a bonfire.

Shortly after the event wraps, the outdoor dining room is flooded withocean water 16 metres high.

The outdoor restaurant sets up in Burntcoat Head, a park on the Noel Shore owned by theMunicipality of East Hants. The areaholds the record for the world's highest tides.

Tourism Nova Scotia pitched the idea to Chris and Melissa Velden six years ago.The restaurateurs put on the event and the province does marketing and promotion.

The first year, the Veldens charged $300 per couple, but they didn't turn a profit. The price tag this year is about $1,300 per couple, which Chris Velden said might be "too cheap."

"Now I don't know where the limit is because we're selling out in a minute," he said.