Brighton coffee guide: a quarter century of roasting by the sea

Redroaster has roasted coffee in Kemptown since 2000, and Small Batch opened its first café by Hove station in 2006. Pelicano and Bond Street Coffee both arrived in 2014, Trading Post put a roaster in its first coffee house in 2017, and 44 Poets opened in Hove’s Poets’ Corner the year after. Five of these nine roast their own coffee in Brighton and Hove, Bond Street pours single origins roasted by its founder, and 44 Poets co-roasts its house coffee. Komodo and LOAM bring in guest roasters from the UK and beyond. Most of these Brighton coffee shops are in the Lanes and the North Laine, with three in Hove.

Redroaster, Kemptown and Brighton Dome

Redroaster started roasting in 2000 on small Diedrich roasters imported from the United States and moved up to larger Diedrich machines in 2006. The roastery is in Kemptown, roasts every day and employs around 20 to 25 people, and 16 young adults with learning disabilities work alongside the roasters through the charity Team Domenica. Redroaster buys only coffees graded above 84 points, directly from the farmers, pays more than the Fairtrade price and roasts organic coffee. Since 2016 it has supported the Rwandan farmers who grow some of its coffee, starting with a school in Musenyi. The Kemptown café is in its 26th year, with an organic brunch among the plants and the bottomless brunches it is known for. The second café, at Brighton Dome, wraps around the Corn Exchange and the Studio Theatre, with terraces over the Royal Pavilion Gardens and dinner, wine and cocktails in the evening.

Small Batch Coffee Roasters, Hove and Portslade

Small Batch Coffee Roasters started in 2006 with a coffee shop next to Hove station. That café is still the flagship and was the first home of the roastery, which gave its name to Goldstone, the house espresso blend served in every Small Batch café. The roastery has since moved to Portslade, where a Probat and a Loring Kestrel roast in small batches and a Roastery Cafe sits about 15 metres from the roasters, with food, outdoor seats and laptops and dogs welcome. A third café is near Brighton station, and the Portslade roastery also hosts a Coffee School for home brewers. For its 20th birthday in 2026, Small Batch brought co-founder Alan Tomlins back to rebuild the original 2006 Goldstone as a limited edition, alongside the current blend of natural and washed coffees from Brazil, Kenya and Papua New Guinea.

Pelicano, North Laine and The Level

Pelicano Coffee Roasters began in 2014 as a small independent café in the North Laine, founded by Zephir Thomas and Sol Lee, and every batch is roasted in-house in Brighton. Its branding draws on Sol’s Korean heritage. The original café has a front terrace, a back garden and two floors where laptops and meetings are welcome, and a second café also spreads over two floors. At The Level, a kiosk-style café beside the park serves the Smokey Bird espresso blend, 60% Brazil and 40% Colombia, and single origins mostly to drink outside. The newest café is Pelicano’s first with a full kitchen, with brunch made to order and a licence for Bloody Marys, craft beer and natural wine. Dogs and children are welcome in all of them.

Bond Street Coffee, North Laine

Bond Street Coffee opened in 2014 as a partnership between Chris Campbell-Barr and Bradley and Amelia of Horsham Coffee Roaster, who already supplied the café that stood there. Chris had learnt his coffee in Brighton cafés from 2011 and took over Bond Street on his own in 2022. From the first day the café served single origins rather than a house blend, usually two or three at once. Chris began roasting for his cafés in 2017, and the roasting became Freda Coffee, a one-person roastery named after his Nan, which slot-roasts on Horsham Coffee Roaster’s equipment. Everything on the bar is now Freda’s, including the two seasonal single-origin house espressos: Black Rain, roasted a little darker, and Black Dog, lighter and brighter. The cake counter is entirely vegan. There is no Wi-Fi, so the room stays full of conversation.

Trading Post Coffee Roasters, the Lanes and North Laine

Trading Post Coffee Roasters opened its first coffee house in the Lanes in January 2017 as an open-view roastery, coffee bar and eatery, with a classic, fully manual roaster in the room. The family-run business now has ten coffee houses across Sussex, six of them in Brighton: the original in the Lanes, two in the North Laine including The Roastery, one between Brighton and Hove, a takeaway counter in Churchill Square and one at Brighton station. Coffee is still roasted live in several of them, and the main roasting now happens at a roastery on the outskirts of Brighton. The signature blends include Black Pearl, the Brighton blend of five origins roasted separately, and the single origins carry their producers’ names, such as an anaerobic washed lot from the Loma Ocotitlán community in Oaxaca. Most of the coffee houses serve brunch and welcome dogs.

17 Grams, the Lanes and Hove

17 Grams is a Brighton coffee roastery with brunch cafés in the Lanes, in Hove and in Chichester, and it roasts its own beans in-house for the bar. The brunch menu has plenty of vegan and vegetarian dishes. Most tables are kept for walk-ins, and laptops are welcome on the communal table under a fair-use policy. The roastery takes its coffees out of town too: in autumn 2026 it shared a stand with Minor Figures at the first Sip Coffee Festival in Sheffield and served an apple co-ferment, Ladon, at a bar takeover in Battersea.

44 Poets, Poets’ Corner in Hove

44 Poets opened in Poets’ Corner in 2018, bringing Melbourne-style community coffee to Hove. Since 2020 it has co-roasted its coffee with Craft House Coffee in Sussex, and the house espresso, Montgomery, is a washed Caturra from Buesaco in Colombia that stayed on because customers would not let it go. The shot comes off a La Marzocco Linea PB, with Mahlkönig grind-by-weight grinders. Guest roasters rotate through, among them 17 Grams, Intermission from London and All Caps. At the 2026 Brighton Coffee Festival the team brewed Razzle Jazzle, a co-roasted Ombligon processed by Nestor Lasso, on the community brew bar. Jeric won the festival’s first “Level” competition in 2024.

Komodo Coffee, Brighton Square

Komodo Coffee is an independent espresso and filter bar in Brighton Square, in the Lanes, with coffees from roasters in the UK and beyond and bakes made in-house. It opened in a tiny room in March 2023. In 2026 its retail shelf has carried two washed Kenyans and a natural Gesha from Datura in Paris, and its cold brew in August was a Colombian Bourbon Aji roasted by KoBean. Iced drinks stay on the menu all year, and a reading shelf keeps the latest issues of Standart and Positive News.

LOAM coffee & store, North Laine

LOAM coffee & store is “coffee led, always”, with rotating guest roasters on espresso and filter and buns and cookies baked in the shop. In 2026 the guests have included People Possession on espresso, filter coffees from Nostos in London and bags from Boo Coffee Roasters, and Module Roast’s numbered releases sit on the retail shelves. PLOT Roasting has taken over the bar for a day two years running, and at the 2026 Brighton Coffee Festival LOAM ran a brew bar pouring a co-fermented Castillo from Sandbox and PLOT’s Tutti Frutti as a cold brew tonic.

What you need to know about Brighton specialty coffee

Which Brighton coffee shops roast their own coffee? Redroaster roasts in Kemptown, Small Batch in Portslade, Pelicano in Brighton, Trading Post at a roastery on the outskirts of Brighton and live in several of its coffee houses, and 17 Grams in-house. Bond Street Coffee pours Freda, roasted by its founder on Horsham Coffee Roaster’s equipment, and 44 Poets co-roasts with Craft House Coffee.

Where can you drink guest roasters? Komodo and LOAM rotate roasters from the UK and beyond, and 44 Poets brings in guests alongside its own coffee.

Where can you drink coffee next to the roaster? Small Batch’s Roastery Cafe in Portslade sits a few metres from its Probat and Loring, and Trading Post roasts live in the Lanes, the North Laine, Lewes, Worthing and Horsham.

Can you work on a laptop? Small Batch welcomes laptops, Pelicano offers free Wi-Fi and plug sockets and asks for a purchase, and 17 Grams keeps laptops to the communal table. Bond Street Coffee has no Wi-Fi.

Where is the brunch? Redroaster serves an organic brunch and bottomless brunches, 17 Grams and most Trading Post coffee houses have brunch menus, and Pelicano’s newest café is its first with a full kitchen.

Where is the coffee in Hove? Small Batch by Hove station, 17 Grams in Hove and 44 Poets in Poets’ Corner.