Bond Street Coffee

Bond Street, Brighton, 01273 731300

It seems astonishing today that as recently as the 1990s the only coffee options available in most town centres were white, black or – for the cosmopolitan – cappuccino.

Since that decade’s coffee explosion, led by the Starbucks, Costa and Cafe Nero chains, the idea of a cafe offering instant is unthinkable.

Now, as in the rise of craft beer in the pub trade, the independents are changing the game again.

And Bond Street Coffee is arguably one of the most exciting new coffee shops to open in Brighton for some time – offering home-roasted single origin coffees from across Africa and South America in a deliberately stripped back and slightly bohemian setting.

The shop, which is in the former Bertie’s in Bond Street, is the first time Bradley and Amelia Steenkamp, the couple behind Horsham Coffee Roaster, has sold their own coffee directly to the public. They have gone into business with barista Chris Campbell, who used to work at Cafe @ 33 in Trafalgar Street, which the Steenkamps used to supply.

“My wife and I have an obsession with coffee,” says Bradley, who first started roasting at home two and a half years ago.

“We had a small roaster in the garage which we converted with a smoke pipe out onto the road. It looked like a lab from Breaking Bad – we had people walking by looking into our windows to see what was going on.”

From such humble beginnings the roasting is now carried out two days a week in a small commercial unit in Handcross, midway between the Steenkamps’ Horsham home and their new business.

Bond Street Coffee’s unique selling point is that rather than selling their own blend of coffee they focus on single origin coffees – notable for the different flavours that can be attributed to the bean.

On the day The Guide drops into the shop – which is packed only two weeks on from its quiet opening at the end of September – there is a choice between Indian, with chocolate/caramel notes, or a fruity Nicaraguan coffee.

The focus is clearly on the coffee – with a state-of-the-art customized Synesso Hydra machine dominating the counter, fed by water filtered through a Sierra reverse osmosis system.

Chris says many of the coffees are best served black – although a recent Ethiopian coffee with strawberry notes created something not unlike a sweet fruit milkshake when mixed with milk.

The shop will always offer a choice of two or three ethically traded single origin coffees, with Brazil, Honduras, Ethiopia and Rwanda popular places of birth.

“We have become so passionate about the products,” says Bradley, pointing to the sale of the Ethiopian and Rwandan coffee as making a real difference to people’s lives.

“The Rwandan coffee growers provide schools, training and sporting facilities. It has made a huge difference to those coffee growing families since the Rwandan genocide.”

Accompanying the coffee menu is a range of sandwiches, croissant and cakes sourced from local small family businesses.

“We want to keep it simple,” says Bradley. “We don’t want to go down the restaurant route that a lot of coffee shops have. We want to focus on what we do well, which we hope is the coffee.”

The interior of the coffee shop is simple and stripped back – with furniture sourced from antique shops, hand-painted crates providing resting space for coffee cups, and even a home-made lamp crafted from an old microphone stand.

“We didn’t want it to look like we had gone to a supplier and bought 50 table and chair sets,” says Bradley. “It’s about looking different and being different.”

On the walls there is a signed picture of Nicolas Cage in Con Air – something of a quirky cafe hero - and a selection of classic album covers reflecting both the eclectic music mix played in the shop, and the small recording studio space downstairs.

As for the future the three owners would love to build on this initial success. “We’re not looking to take the world by storm,” says Chris. “If we did another shop I would like people to see the roaster at work. It all depends on how this shop evolves.”

Open Mon to Fri 7am to 6pm, Sat 8am to 6pm, Sun 9am to 5pm. Visit www.bondstcoffee.co.uk