Inside Bournemouth’s newest beach restaurant.

Bayside Restaurant Bar & Grill will be open from Monday 1 August until Tuesday 30 August between the Bournemouth and Boscombe piers.

The new venue at Toft Zig Zag has a timber frame structure, indoor and outdoor seating, and private beach access.

The month-long dining experience is able to seat up to 180 people inside at any one time, with an additional 80 people outside on a wooden decking area.

Headed up by chef Gideon Hitchin, Bayside Restaurant serves a range of meals including fish and chips, light bites like salads or crab sandwiches and local lobster or Portland pearl oysters.

David and Tracey Williams, from Slick Events Limited organised the project in partnership with BCP Council.

Tracey said: “It’s a BCP Council funded project and they have engaged us to basically bring this to fruition so that's what we’ve done.

“The bayside restaurant is about giving a quality offering with regards to decent restaurant food but in an amazing location.

“We’re right on the beach, so we’re looking at high level quality service and food but also working with local providers.

“We’ve recruited 70 staff who are going to be working over the next 6 weeks, so we are running from 10am until 10.30pm, seven days a week. We’re doing everything from gourmet burgers right through to lobster and champagne so we’re basically for everybody.”

David said: “I would say the concept is looking at the Mediterranean lifestyle that you get when you go on holiday so if you’re in Spain or France you have the beach restaurants and it's about maybe introducing this as a concept for the future for Bournemouth that we can be a St Tropez.

“We’ve got the fantastic coat line, the beautiful views and by giving this experience on the beach, it gives maybe the affluent people of the town somewhere to come for something special.

The restaurant is part of BCP Council’s plan to assess the viability of allowing more hospitality activities on the beach.

Tracey said: “The project is a pilot this year, so BCP are looking to see how successful it is to pilot and whether there is a requirement for it in the local community.

“If it’s successful then I believe they're looking for a longer term base for next year and they'll be putting things in like electricity and water supply, so we can be here from Easter through to the summer.”

More than 1,800 people have already booked to visit Bayside. If the pilot is a success, the council has said feasibility will be assessed to put in infrastructure to allow trading of this type to happen more easily in the future.

Cllr Beverley Dunlop, Portfolio Holder for Culture and Vibrant Places, said: “The vision we have over the last two or three years was about completely changing the seafront, making it an exciting place to be, making it somewhere you wanted to be and if we look at this now, it's just fabulous.

“You could be anywhere in the world but you don't need to be anywhere in the world and I think that's the point of this is to have a beautiful restaurant on the seafront that you can come to with your family, with your friends, with your business colleagues and it's just amazing.

“We’ve got several pop-up restaurants along the sea front but this is really a notch up and this is where we want to go.

“We want an exciting seafront, we want people to think that if they want somewhere to go, there's an amazing restaurant right here and it's unique. There must be very few places that have something like this on the seafront. 

"I would love to go for a whole summer next year and who knows where we could go from there but I think this is the future. We are really getting behind it and I hope everyone else will too.”

Bayside Restaurant Bar & Grill will be open seven days offering brunch from 10am until midday and then a full menu including seafood and steaks until 10pm each night.