A "cocktail carriage" has arrived in West Bay as The Station Kitchen welcomes a new addition.

The new train carriage was delivered this week and will be transformed into a place where people can get a pre-dinner or after dinner drink, or just pop in for a cocktail.

The Station Kitchen continues to be very popular and due to demand, owners Claire and Ross Moore wanted the restaurant to be somewhere people could spend the duration of their evening.

Claire said: "We're always really busy - we're open four days a week - and we do four sittings every day, so two lunch sittings and two dinner sittings, simply because it has to be financially viable over four days.

"What happens is people have only got two to two and a half hours on the table and they really want to go somewhere after or for pre-dinner drinks - that's where the carriage comes in.

"We won't serve dinner in the carriage, simply because we haven't got the kitchen capability or space to do any more food than we're pushing out at the moment. We do about 200 covers a day and the kitchen is very minute.

"Our plan is to have people come in for pre-dinner drinks, having dinner with us and perhaps retiring to the cocktail carriage for cheese or cocktails, good wine, after dinner drinks and coffees. Also, we get so many people asking to stop for a cocktail and we can't do it as every table is booked.

"So many people want to come out for a drink or a nibble, they don't necessarily want to eat, which is where we are heavily focused, so I think it's nice to have that little bit of focus on good wine and cocktails."

The new carriage is longer and newer than the other and will have a different layout, with chesterfield style chairs and bench seating on one side.

Claire added: "We're going to go really loud with the wallpaper and décor.

"Because we do get bigger groups, what we are going to do in the new carriage is have a booth that will seat up to 14, which will be available for people to have dinner in."

There are plans to bring back the popular murder mystery evenings at The Station Kitchen, as well as having bands perform in the carriage and it be available for private hire.

The positive comments from the community are already pouring in.

Claire said: "It's all been really positive and people are really excited. I think a lot of people do want to get out to eat... they want to make an evening of it.

"I think it's really positive and I think people are happy they can just pop in for a drink rather than having to eat with us."

Work has started already on the carriage and Claire and Ross hope it will be finished in time for Christmas, although this year the restaurant will be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day while they spend time with their family. They will still be able to cater for Christmas parties and will be open on New Year's Eve.

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