New Year, New Hove

It must be hard to keep smaller shops and services open in today’s market, especially when less people shop locally and there is less money to go out eating and drinking. There are of course the stalwarts that continue to attract repeat customers such as the smashing Harry’s serving up homemade English favourites, the stately Meadow restaurant with its local fare and mini farm-shop and the gorgeous emporium that is the boutique and general-store igigi. But there have been a few new openings too - to replace empty shops and their sadly missed previous tenants - which is a positive sign.

There is a fantastic new gift shop right on the square called Aljurinca that sells beautiful and exotic items for any budget. A bit further up Western Road is La Cave a Fromage, a new fine cheese shop that not only stocks a fantastic array of all different types of cheese but also offers charcuterie, breads and some wine, as well as some interesting tasting nights, a good call if you are thinking of having a dinner party!

Opposite La Cave is The Hove Kitchen, a huge new restaurant that caters for families most of the time but also has a neat little cocktail bar too. A great menu for kids and adults, homemade cakes, varied wine list, a youngsters play area in the day and incredibly helpful staff make this a failsafe drop in at any time.

Creeping even further up Western Road, the good looking Rock & Roller is a great addition to the parade of shops there, and fantastic use of a stunning building. A pool bar where you can drink a cocktail or a cocktail bar where you can shoot some pool? Whatever, its fun and its open late.

Opposite Rock & Roller is Café Koba – not just a café, this myriad of rooms set over four floors is a destination! Open from hungover breakfast time right through until the late cocktail hour. You can eat amazing Sunday roasts here, hang out with coffee and the paper or party the night away. Oh and its kid and dog friendly too (at the right time) so if like me you have both and struggle for somewhere you can all go together then this is a good bet.

Just the other side of the square going up Church Road is a new Thai place The Green Mango (which we’ve yet to try out) and opposite that is The Gallery Bistro where you can also take your dog! And Havana Spoon will be opening there soon too.

I don’t know how long these places will stay open, I imagine it must be tough to open up a new venture and make it a success. Hopefully there’s room for everybody new and old, and fulfilling a need for the local community must be one of the keys to longevity? There are no shortage of great places to shop, eat and drink in that area of Hove, including some of these new additions, why not give them a try and support them if you’re in the area.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here