SEASIDE cafe owners Lee and Carolyn Roberton were enjoying celebrity status today after TV and radio personality Chris Evans dropped in for lunch.

Evans, presenter of Channel 4's TFI Friday, enjoyed a cup of coffee and a chip buttie with a woman friend on the sun-baked patio of the Splash Point Cafe, Worthing.

Lee and Carolyn, both 41, took over the cafe near Denton Gardens only five weeks ago.

Lee, of Carisbrooke Drive, Worthing, said: "I didn't recognise him because he was wearing dark sunglasses, but Don, who runs the gift shop next door, came in and said 'Here, you've got Chris Evans having a chip buttie there'.

"I had to go out and check it was really him.

"He bought a Mars bar and then, as they were going, they said how much they had enjoyed it."

Carolyn said: "I wouldn't bother famous customers - unless perhaps it was Mel Gibson.

"I'm thinking of putting a sign up outside now saying 'Chris Evans eats here!'

"Worthing's a great place. The people are so friendly here. We've only been here for five weeks but we love it. I hope he comes again."

The couple were at the restaurant for about 45 minutes before popping next door to Nina's Gift Shop, run by Donato Sabia and his wife Vivienne, where Chris bought six large pink sticks of Worthing rock at 70p each.

Donato, 50, said: "A customer came in and said: 'Have you got a pen and paper because Chris Evans is next door?'

"She approached him and got an autograph for her daughter. He came in here and bought some rock but I didn't say anything to him."

Vivienne, 48, said: "I think he bought all that rock to prove he actually had been to Worthing.

"I've been here all my life and when it's sunny it's as good as any place on earth."

The next day, Evans spoke of his trip to Worthing on the Virgin Radio breakfast show he presents.

He said: "I got up and said to myself 'I want to have a cup of tea, really strong tea, and a chip buttie by the seaside'.

"So I got in my car and went to Worthing. I was sat there at the Splash Point Cafe at noon.

"Brighton was mad but Worthing wasn't mad at all. Worthing is beautiful, it's fantastic.

"They've got all the fresh fish from the fishermen and they sell it on the shore straight off the boats.

"We bought a three-pound plaice for £6 and had it yesterday and it was absolutely gorgeous - like no other fish you've had in any other restaurant."

Foreign student Sascha Midel 19, from the Ukraine, loves Worthing.

She said: "It is beautiful here with the pier and the beach. I have never been anywhere like this before."

Worthing mayor Coun David Chapman said: "I'm only too pleased that Chris Evans realises what a great place Worthing is - I've been saying that for the past 40 years."

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