Restaurant chain Cosy Club wants to open a quirky and eccentric venue in the first phase of the £300m Northgate city centre regeneration scheme.
The 180-cover restaurant will be on the ground and first floor levels of the former library which has moved into the £37m Storyhouse cultural centre.
An opening will be created in the back wall of the library building so the central arch can act as a thoroughfare into a new market square featuring a market hall with six-screen Picturehouse cinema above.
Cosy Club prides itself on 'luxury comfort food with some tongue in cheek classics and favourites from across the world'.
An all-day café-bar operation with an eclectic style, the venue will offer breakfasts, coffees and lunches before morphing into a restaurant-bar for evening trade.
The brand is operated by Loungers, who also own ‘the Lounge’ neighbourhood café-bars. There are 20 Cosy Club restaurants across the country including York, Manchester, Liverpool, Bath, Exeter and Cheltenham.
Cosy Club, which has taken the unit on a 15-year lease, is expected to open during 2018 in a 5,500 sq ft unit.
Cosy Club is near the newly-opened Storyhouse, a venue that has generated renewed investor interest in delivering the long-awaited Northgate Development which would be partly be based on land freed up by relocating the bus exchange.
Charlie Seward, deputy chief executive (Places) at Cheshire West and Chester Council, said: “This is another big step towards the Northgate development, on the day Chester’s new bus interchange opens to all passengers for the first time.
“Chester Library moving into the fabulous Storyhouse and the town hall bus exchange relocation are both significant elements of our investment in a vibrant Chester.”
The council says Storyhouse, the multi-screen cinema, a brand new Crowne Plaza hotel and the cathedral will create ‘a unique and very powerful leisure attraction’ that will stimulate ‘huge customer demand’ for food and beverage outlets.
David Lewis, executive director of Rivington Land, the council’s development manager, said: “Securing Cosy Club is another great example of how Chester Northgate will attract many new brands to the city centre and thereby enhance its vitality and long-term sustainability.”
Anchored by a 100,000 sq ft House of Fraser department store, Northgate is set to provide a range of 50 new shops and major stores, about 15 new cafés and restaurants, the city’s largest car park and up to 70 homes.
For further information, plans and images, see the Chester Northgate click here.
