Entering Kipling’s Brasserie Restaurant at The Boardwalk Hotel earlier this week, I felt as though I had fallen down a rabbit hole and into a magical world of giant tea cups, with a bossy Red Queen, a cheeky Cheshire Cat and a Mad Hatter, all lost in the 21st century.

As I sipped my first gin cocktail from my vintage tea cup, I watched in awe as the men and women around me giggled under their silly top hats, each person’s inner child emerging...