Packed with throne-like chairs complete with gilded edges, host to a range of evening entertainments and – most importantly – home of great coffee, Brasserie Louis has managed to recreate the café culture of Montparnasse with a touch of Gallic high-society decadence. Chris Challis popped over to the York Place establishment to chat to proprietor Louis Daly about his new venture.

What did you do before opening this business?

I had two restaurants in London, one in Primrose Hill and one in Hampstead. I’ve still got a tea shop there called Louis. That’s more of a traditional 1920s place where we specialise in all different kinds of teas.

I’ve spent 57 years in London, so Brighton is all new to me. I bought the property about two years ago and we’ve been open several weeks now. It used to be a Chinese restaurant and in the 1970s it was a Spudulike.

Why did you decide to open in Brighton and what do you like about your location?

It’s a city we’ve always come to. We had a boat in the Marina for nearly ten years. We looked at other locations – Weymouth and Eastbourne – but we kept coming back here.

I never realised this cutting-edge Brighton existed.

I always thought it was just the marina, The Lanes and East Street. I never really knew North Laine. Having spent so long in Camden Town, Hampstead and Portobello Market, it’s like a home from home.

What kind of atmosphere are you trying to create?

It’s all based loosely around a Parisian bar, which I think we’ve captured. We had a big house in London and that was very much done in a Louis XIV style, so we thought let’s do a French bar.

We spent a lot of time in France and we warmed to that style. It’s supposed to be a bit rickety – it could have very easily been a much more modern outfit.

Why did you move from restaurants to cafés?

I’m a trained chef and when I had my two restaurants my love was for food… but there was a lot of stress involved. Now that the children have gone and I’m getting back into that sort of area, I really didn’t want to go through that stress again.

I like the feeling of a café bar. I think when you get older you’re still shooting for that profit, but you can be that little bit more cavalier about it.

Who is your typical customer?

We seem to be getting a lot of free-spirited, independent thinkers and a lot of academics. People tend to look in and think it’s some kind of fine French cuisine, or that it’s going to be terribly expensive, which we’re not.

For students we offer a 25% discount all day, every day, so our cans of soft drinks are only 71p. For that they get to hang out here for a couple of hours, listen to some music.

Our alcohol is £2.50 for a single or £3.50 for a double.

Any hot drink – cappuccino, latte, hot chocolate – is £1.95 and that includes a chocolate muffin or pain au chocolat. They’ve been so popular that cake sales have dropped!

Will you be hosting entertainment in the evening?

Yes, the first live music here will be for Pride. My wife will be running singles events too – it’s something she hasn’t seen too much of in the Sussex area. We’ll be holding some psychic evenings – that’s something my daughter is pushing. She also told me that when she was at university she normally had Monday and Tuesday nights off, but by midweek they’re ready to go out partying again, so Wednesday is a student night.

What makes Brasserie Louis different?

Without really planning it, we’ve made this place slightly quirky and different to anything else. Thanks to the design of the place we’ve got people coming in purely to sit on the chairs and enjoy the atmosphere – and that really wasn’t the plan.

People have said they’d gone past on the bus, seen us, and then just had to come in. One lady even missed her bus to get a muffin.

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt working in the food industry?

It’s all to do with presentation. The food and drink obviously has to be 100% good, but presentation and the social side of things is so important. You can have the best coffee in town, but people have to feel comfortable when they drink it.

*Open daily, 8am-6.30pm. Visit www.brasserielouisbrighton.com for evening events and to join the mailing list.