Bar staff from Bohemia won their second cocktail award of the year at the Brighton Food and Drink festival.

The Grand Café and Late Bar was crowned champion of the mini mix-off category for their Clean Slate – a twist on a whiskey sour with a muffin on the side.

They saw off competition from other bars in the city, including myhotel, Bar Valentino and The Waterfront at the Hilton.

Daniel Ghoussoub, bar manager at Bohemia, said: “It was great – the customers said they loved the drink. The win meant a lot as we’ve been pushing our cocktails since we opened last year.”

The entrants had to make cocktails from a specific set of ingredients to accompany certain food dishes and the winner was voted for by their peers.

Bohemia is owned by entrepreneurial couple Paul and Verity Craig, and was a finalist in the Best Place for Business Entertaining category at the 2012 Sussex Business Awards.

Mr Craig, entrepreneur of the year at the 2010 Sussex Business Awards, said: “The success has been incredi- ble. The building was known as a problem venue and the last four owners went bust.

"Suddenly now we’ve gone to being a finalist in the first year and it’s stable. It’s a good location and there’s no reason why it can’t work.”

The pair drew inspiration from bars in Shoreditch and East London, which Mrs Craig described as areas “at the cutting edge of cocktail-making”.

Their bar is the only place in Brighton where you can buy “molecular cocktails” that smoke and foam.