Brighton has more than 400 pubs, an exhausting number of cafes and restaurants, and a vibrant and varied nightlife exhibiting the very best in live music to the very worst in club music.
The city is filled with students and twentysomethings, including me, and is bursting with a youthful buzz. But what café sells the best coffee? What pub pulls the best pint? And what clubs and venues will sufficiently fuel your dancing needs?
The heating is rarely switched on in a shared house, so when the dark, lugubrious winter months descend upon Brighton it’s usually intelligent to spend as little time in your, damp, cold squalor as possible.
Of course being at university requires ‘a lot of work’ and perhaps the best place to try and confront an essay on the intricacies of War and Peace or the nature of love in Plato’s Symposium is in a café with an impeccable coffee and a baked treat.
There are plenty of cafes to go to including The Flour Pot Bakery, the idiosyncratic Marwood and Pelicano, Mange Tout offers terrific coffee particularly the Café au Lait, alongside the best brunch in Brighton: a sizeable sausage, poached egg and back bacon all perfectly positioned on a piece of sour-dough bread.
My personal favourite is The Nordic Café, situated just off London Road. The Nordic Café embodies an inherently Scandinavian chilled-out vibe decorated with icy blue white plates depicting typical Scandinavian scenes of fishing and fjords, serving perfectly blended coffees and delicate, delicious Icelandic baked goods such as moreish Cinnamon rolls (Kanalbullers) and oat-based apple crumbles everything a hungry and tired student needs.
So then once you’ve taken care of late brunch and late afternoon coffee, now the pub crawl begins.
Brighton offers beer gardens galore, local ales, live music and most importantly individuality. The Hobgoblin is where all the coolest crews in town drink a single vodka soda lime whilst discussing which grime night they are going to this Friday at Concorde 2 or if they’ve heard the latest Mac Demarco record. The pub offers a great beer garden, student deals, delectable burgers, but the service keeps you waiting for a drink perhaps a little too long for a thirsty customer.
The Prince Albert offers great new and upcoming live music and a typical Brighton friendly atmosphere. The new and brilliant Penelope Isles and the mad, confrontational Yak are two of the best acts I have seen at the venue. A couple of 2-for-1 rum based cocktails (the best being a Jamaican Mule) accompanied with reggae beats at Riki-Tiks on the beach also never goes amiss. Perhaps the best though, is The Hare and Hounds, conceivably this is because it is a two minute walk from my house, but it provides a heated and contemporary garden, a great selection of beers (including Beavertown’s excellent Gamma-ray) Mexican food provided by La Choza and superb playlist ranging from Kendrick Lamar to Tame Impala.
Now you’ve had a couple of pints you’re probably up for a bit of a boogie. Clubbing in Brighton stretches from the smelliest of cheese to the iciest of cool, you can tell a lot about a person if they go to Pryzm on a Wednesday or if they go to Green Door Store on a Tuesday. Pryzm, a modern version of Dante’s Inferno for some and a pilgrim’s Mecca to others, punishes or pleases its visitors with EDM, cheese-pop and outdated RnB. It’s the perfect outing for sports teams, fans of VK and party animals, but for me it is Mephistopheles incarnated into a three story club.
Green Door Store situated underneath Brighton train station offers free student nights, including the notorious Donuts (which has free entry!) and numerous live bands performing, such as KIN and Maricka Hackman. Concorde 2, part-owned by Fatboy Slim and situated on the seafront, provides great live alternative bands such as Kurt Vile, Snarky Puppy, Mac Demarco and Temples for the skinny jean, flannel shirt and Dr Marten brigade and also Grime, House and Drum and Bass events for the bucket hat, baggy t-shirt, black trainers and signet ring squad.
Brighton is an all-encompassing city with something to do every day, whether it be a warming beverage at an independent coffee shop, a relatively over-priced pint in a pub or a boogie to an impressive variety of sounds.
Discover more of the country with our UK travel guides, including this wayward account of nightswimming at Holkham beach.
Contact list:
The Flour Pot Bakery
flour-pot.co.uk
Ship Street
01273 621942
The Marwood
themarwood.com
Ship Street Court
01273 382063
“Kick arse coffee and life changing cake”
Pelicano
pelicanohouse.com
01273 567808
Serves Smokey Bird House Blend coffee
Mange Tout
mangetoutbrighton.co.uk
Trafalgar Street
01273 607270
Bistro with coffees blended in East Sussex, also serves Italian and French wines and a Flying Dog, Snake Dog, IPA.
Nordic Coffee Collective
nordiccoffeecollective.co.uk
York Place
01273 673070
Icelandic and Scandanavian food
Hobgoblin
hobgoblin.pub
York Place
01273 682933
Troll’s Pantry – serves burgers made from wild Sussex beef served with all kinds of extras such as beer pickled cabbage, fried black kale, porter, chocolate and mulato chilli and smoked foresters cheese.
Concorde 2
concorde2.co.uk
Madeira Drive
01273 673311
The Prince Albert
facebook.com/ThePrinceAlbert
Trafalgar Street
01273 730499
Riki Tik
facebook.com/RikiTikBeachBar
King’s Road
01273 725541
Reggae Rum Shack with over 80 types of rum, 2-4-1 cocktails, record shop, guest DJ’s and Caribbean kitchen serving BBQ chicken wings, jerk pork, sweet potato curry and others all with Rice n Peas
The Hare and Hounds
thehareandhounds.pub
London Road
01273 682839
Brewery fresh unfiltered beers and Mexican street food from La Choza
Pryzm
pryzm.co.uk
Kingswest
01273 710976
The Green Door Store
thegreendoorstore.co.uk
Directly underneath Brighton Railway Station
Donuts – Tuesdays, free, Electronic/Hip-Hop
