It took until mid May, but Brighton finally saw its first big weekend, with pubs, bars and restaurants opening for alfresco pints, rides spinning on the Pier and a big bomb on the beach.
Pubs reopen
Brighton city centre was a tidal wave of joy over the weekend as hundreds of the city’s pubs, bars and restaurants welcomed customers back for outdoor shenanigans. Mercifully the Great British weather played along and bathed all of us pint-lovers in glorious sunshine, making the first weekend back down the boozer a tolerable one, and not the arctic circle scene many had feared.
Undercurrent spent Saturday sipping tequila cocktails and eating tacos at the wonderful Temple Bar and ripping lovely pints of Laine’s Word Lager at The Western; before retiring to a lazy Sunday sip at Hove’s beautiful Connaught Pub and Kitchen.
We were left incredibly impressed by all three, with prompt service, stringent safety measures and helpful staff the measure of the day.
Further into town the good news kept rolling – The Caxton Arms overcame some ludicrous Brighton council planning rulings and welcomed punters into its now-reduced outside seating area, including its first Sunday roasts of the year.
Life’s a beach
Down on our hallowed seafront every available inch of bench space was full from noon to night, with Tempest, Brighton Music Hall, OhSo Social and even bloody Shoosh packing out with happy campers. Whilst drinking may well have been the order of the day, the last 12 months have seen the food offering down in the arches improve dramatically. Lazy Fin is a truly wonderful spot that has got you covered from breakfast (including AM cocktails, woof) to dinner, with the kind of menu that covers all bases brilliantly. Scope it HERE.
Meanwhile, Sangsa instantly upgraded the arches upon its arrival last year and is slinging out some absolutely top drawer Korean fried goodness straight outta The Tempest Inn.
For those sauntering along towards Hove there is also the big Flour Pot Kitchen, Gelato Gusto and our very own V360 vegan ice cream spot, can’t say fairer than that.
Naturally, away from the pre-booked spots along the front, people engaged in the age-old tradition of a big bag of tins on the beach.
It wasn’t all good news however, for on Sunday evening there was a big old bomb scare on the beach, which is not ideal.
Suspected WW2 ordnance was believed to have been uncovered just west of the Palace Pier, leading the police to cordon off the whole area. As of writing it’s all been sorted and no one got blown up, which is a RELIEF!
Brighton Undercurrent 