The Old Rec Café

brighton and hove has more specialty coffee per square mile than most uk cities care to admit, and the competition keeps the whole scene honest. that pressure filters down to places like the old rec café, which sits on the edge of hove recreation ground off shirley drive in bn3. you're not wandering into a high street formula here. this is a neighbourhood spot with a genuinely local pull, the kind of place where regulars circle back not out of habit alone but because the coffee actually holds up. the standing it's built among the people who know it best says plenty. worth going out of your way for, particularly on a weekend morning when hove feels quieter than brighton and the park is still half-empty.