New Brighton burger joint set to open this month

Honest Burgers, who now have six restaurants in London, are opening a new branch in Brighton’s Duke Street on February 25 nearly a decade after they started out.

Tom Barton said: “We made that classic mistake of thinking it’s easy to run a food business. After a few beers in the Bath Arms, we agreed to put in £3000 each.

“Turns out it was a lot harder than we thought. But we didn’t stop. We met some great people who helped us open a tiny restaurant in Brixton, and then a few more.”

They now have 29 branches in London, Cambridge, Bristol and Reading, and Brighton will be their 31st restaurant.

Tom’s passion for cooking burgers can be traced back to his undergraduate days, barbecues on Brighton beach with his friends.

He describes the burgers he made then as “obscene” with breadcrumbs, eggs, nothing like the quality of honest burgers, made from prime cuts of chuck steak not mince.

For non-meat lovers they are launching two vegan burgers and a vegetarian burger. The vegan burger is “beyond meat” according to Mr Barton. He said: “It’s very complicated, not made by chefs it’s made by scientists and behaves very much like meat, the texture.”

The vegetarian burger will be a Southern fried fritter with chipotle sauce.

Honest Burgers are planning a series of pop-ups around Brighton before the launch.

A kitchen takeover at the West Hill Tavern will run from February 7-10 to coincide with the Six Nations games.

The Honest Burgers field kitchen, a converted Land Rover Defender will also make an appearance, outside the Holler Taproom on Elder Place from 14-16 February.