Principia Gastronomica

The Mad Hatter, Brighton, England

By Jessica – December 13th, 2005

This is a good café that got several orders of magnitude better when it banned smoking. They do toasted ciabattas which go beyond the normal “cheese and tomato” you find everywhere else; goat’s cheese, rocket and honey is a particularly yummy combination, as is locally smoked ham, Jarlsberg cheese and peach chutney. The falafel is decent, too, and their quiches and tarts are lovely. Everything is served with a variable selection of tasty salads. There are smoothies, milkshakes, cakes and top-notch coffees as well.

The music, which won’t deafen you, veers from dance-y to indie to folkie; they once played almost the entirety of Disintegration by the Cure, which gives them bonus points in my book. It’s a fine place to sit by yourself and read (or indeed knit, as I did once - I was asked what I was making, but no one looked at me like I was insane). There’s no WiFi, but I guess you can’t have everything…

The Mad Hatter, 35 Montpelier Road, Brighton, England, +44 (0) 1273 722 279

Posted to	Eating Out
Written in	December, 2005
Written by	Jessica
Tagged with	café lunch coffee sandwich