Our Friends of Far Afield series continues. Each season, we’ll visit some of Brighton’s best businesses, to talk shop with the staff and find out what they think makes our city so special.

In Part Four, we straddled the border between Brighton and Hove, to visit one of the city’s most beloved pubs, Easy Tiger – where we had a chat with manager, Hollie.

Can you give us a brief history of the pub and a roundup of what it is you do?

Big Foot who are the company that own the pub — took it over about four years ago. The pub itself is called The Hampton, but we’re more commonly known as Easy Tiger these days, because that’s the name of our kitchen franchise. Food-wise, our menu is heavily inspired by Keralan and Telanganan street food. And front-of-house, we’re known for our local craft beers, as well as our natural wines.

You mentioned Big Foot there. Can you give us any more information about the company and their other ventures within the city?

Big Foot also own The Pond in the North Laine, which is such an amazing pub. I worked there first and then got a transfer, actually. It was great getting cheap bao buns. We’re similar in the sense that they also serve a street food-inspired menu, and our bars are very much centrered around the local craft beer scene. East Sussex is one of the best counties in the country for breweries, in my opinion.

Easy TIger is based fairly centrally, just a few roads up from the sea. What’s the local area like? Is there a good community?

To say we are so central, which obviously brings a lot of tourism, we still have a really strong community feel. We have lots of locals, and with Seven Dials just being up the hill, there’s definitely a neighbourhood vibe. We even had a local give us his address once, so we could take his cat back if it ever wandered in. But in terms of the hospitality scene in Brighton, I love the fact that everybody knows each other and has everyone’s back.

And finally, you you tell us what you feel makes Brighton so special, as a place in which to live and work?

The people. Absolutely the people. I love the city for a million reasons, but I think that what drew me to it was the people, and the fact that there’s such an amazing scene for young creatives. The place was just buzzing from the very first moment I visited, and I just fell in love. It’s Never, Neverland; no one grows up, which is I think is really fun. But yeah, it’s just full of lovely, like-minded people. I think we forget how lucky we are sometimes.

Photography by Damien O’Donnell
Words and styling by Charlie Gardiner

Tags: Community

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