Chilled Bars

Taking a quiet stroll along the beach in the throes of the midday Sun in Brighton, we head off the promenade to investigate a small food market or “food festival” at it appears to be officially labelled. There are a lot of stalls bringing shipments of nuts, sweets, cheeses and cider from  homeland and overseas from France and all is bustling. Pretty soon the walking becomes thirsty work and we spot a white tent erected at the far end of the festival. There is an arrangement of tables and chairs inside the tent and in one corner, a makeshift bar serving what looked like bargain cocktails. The barman jokes about how we must have been drinking all night and for some reason prepares drinks for us and some more that he just leaves on the side of the bar. His t-shirt donning the name of the venue makes me think twice before having the drink before me. Hastily we grab a table from the selection just outside the tent, otherwise populated with old folk drinking tea. The drinks were watered down sugar and I couldn’t tell if the drink was alcohol or just bitter. But for such a low price and honky-tonk spewing out in the background it was easy to see how so many could get duped, just the allure of the ice in my drink was enough on this rather warm day.

Overall a bit of a con, a couple of poorly dressed locals who have no idea how to make a good cocktail just making a few bob out of the thirsty - not commendable behaviour - 3/10