China syndrome

Collingbourne Ducis feels more like a small country house than a restaurant. Customers can eat formally in the 26-cover dining room, lounge on sofas and armchairs in the 12-seat library, or perch on one of six stools at a counter in the kitchen.

All this is compactly but elegantly fitted into the ground floor and basement - each with an area of about 800sq ft - of a Grade II-listed building in the heart of Bath.

"We want people to feel very comfortable and at home," says owner Andrew Mellon, who opened the restaurant in June. He adds that the different areas help the business to trade 16 hours a day because Collingbourne Ducis offers breakfast, morning coffee, afternoon tea and a pre-theatre mini-menu, in addition to lunch and dinner.

Central to the decor is Mellon's remarkable 3,000-piece collection of china, glass and cutlery, much of it stock from the shops he used to run in New York and San Francisco. As well as being used on the tables, the china and glasses are all displayed on a dresser in the pantry at the entrance.

There is Spode's Queen's Bird pattern for breakfast and a choice of Spode's Stafford Flowers or Edwardian patterns for tea. For Irish porridge oats there is Nicholas Mosse cow-pattern pottery, while morning coffee comes in tomato-red Hermes cups. At lunch and dinner, plates are chosen to complement the food, among them US Annieglass glass dishes and about 150 different patterns of Limoges china. Cutlery, some of it solid silver and worth £300 a piece, includes items from Puiforcat and Buccellati.

Mellon estimates he started with about £50,000 of tableware then spent a further £15,000. "You couldn't afford to do it from scratch," he says, "but, as I had it, I'm enjoying it and felt other people should too."