MENU DORSET issue 08 65 pages | Page 54

t u o t a e COSY CLUB At street level the Cosy Club is simply a pair of push-button doors opening onto an unexpectedly decorative hallway. Emma Caulton wanted to discover what lay beyond ut what IS it?” the other half cries delightedly as we settle down in the Cosy Club, a new and well received addition to Bournemouth’s informal dining scene. “Is it a bar or a club or a restaurant?” “Or, indeed, a cafe or tea room?” I add unhelpfully (eyeing up a tempting coffee and cake menu). But does it matter that the Cosy Club defies standard classification? It is the latest in a group of idiosyncratic and individual eateries that originated in Bristol – the owners positioning them in carefully selected towns and even more carefully selected buildings, including old banks and art colleges. This one opened about three weeks before Christmas, fashioned across three floors in an Art Deco building that survived Bournemouth being bombed back when. Decor is burlesque meets bourgeois. Best china cups and saucers (as tealight holders), tear drop chandeliers, colourful painted and stencilled tables, heavy velvet drapes, grouped fringed lampshades, stag heads, floral papered walls crammed with gilt-framed oils of traditional portraits and landscapes. "B 54 Sofa so good table. However, General Manager David King assures me everyone is perfectly happy to wait, settling into the bar with a drink (or two) to while away the time drinking cocktails, mocktails, craft beer, cid