IF YOU GO
Cozy’s Cottage, 6456 Cincinnati-Dayton Road, Liberty Twp.
513-644-9365
Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays; 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m. to midnight Saturdays; and 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sundays.
A new restaurant here aims to bring inventive gourmet cuisine to an intimate, “shabby-chic” atmosphere.
Cozy’s Cottage opened today at 6456 Cincinnati-Dayton Road, offering an eclectic, ever-changing array of soups, salads, appetizers, sandwiches, sides and entrees.
Jan Collins, who owns three Putters Sports Grill restaurants, said she was looking to open a new fresh concept with high-quality, chef-driven food to an area she knew was lacking it.
“If you want that kind of thing, you’ve got to go downtown,” Collins said. “Well, who wants to drive downtown when you can come right around the corner?”
Patrons can look at a flat-screen monitor mounted above the kitchen area to watch their dishes being made by veteran chefs Gary Henz and Jonathan Price.
The breakfast, lunch and dinner menus are seasonal and made from only the finest ingredients, Henz said.
“We cut our fish, we cut our steaks, we make our dressings, everything is fresh and that’s the key … that’s how I was taught: use the freshest ingredients, cook it properly and you can’t go wrong,” he said. “Nothing’s frozen.”
In the coming weeks, the restaurant plans to add two lunch and two dinner specials to the menu each day, Henz said
“It’ll give us something to play with,” he said, picking fresh basil from a patch of land labeled “Gary’s Garden” and bringing it back to the cottage to be used in a caprese salad.
Amy Landers of Liberty Twp. stopped by the restaurant for lunch on Wednesday and left not only satiated, but impressed.
“It has a unique feel that no other restaurants in the area do and very good food with high-quality ingredients,” Landers said. “They don’t have any items on the menu that someone else does up the street.”
Kecia Meyer of Liberty Twp., who stopped by for a take-out order of gazpacho, said she was tired of fast-food restaurants being the only opportunity to dine out in the area.
“I want quality food and good food,” Meyer said. “I don’t want just a lunch deli meat sandwich, I want something that somebody took the time to cook well and is tasty and good quality.”
Collins, a 30-year veteran of the restaurant industry, said she was inspired to open Cozy’s after visiting London’s trendy pubs and restaurants, notably one with a huge backyard and garden.
“It just had so much presence and so much atmosphere, and I thought, ‘Why don’t we have anything like this in Cincinnati? We just don’t,” she said.
Collins purchased two Cincinnati-Dayton Road properties, renovating a ranch-style home into Cozy’s Cottage, which will serve as a restaurant from Tuesday to Sunday. Mondays are solely reserved for cooking classes, wine tastings and private parties.
She hopes to eventually expand area dining options into a spacious two-story historic home next to the cottage.
“Putters started out small and grew, and I plan on doing that with Cozy’s,” Collins said.
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