A review of The Needlemakers Cafe

I like to go to the Needlemakers’ Cafe on wet or gloomy days. The eaterie is in the centre of an old factory in Lewes so while you’re eating your lunch, you have no idea how bad it is outside. All you can see are the cakes, the coffee machine, and the lights of the jewellery shop next door.

I often order from the specials board. There’s usually soup, quiche, and other cheese- or egg-based dishes. These are made from scratch in the cafe’s (very small) kitchen, and tend to be seasonal. The portions are unfailingly generous, which always goes down well with me. 

Recently, I’ve had a cheddar and ham quiche, a chorizo and potato tortilla, a welsh rarebit, a fruit scone, a slice of carrot cake and many excellent cups of coffee (not all in one sitting, you understand).

The ceiling is high with sturdy wooden beams running horizontally and vertically. It could feel cold or industrial, yet the exposed red brickwork on the floor and walls somehow make it seem cosy. That said, don't sit too near the doors. It can be a little draughty in winter. 

The cafe is flanked by small shops, nestled inside the old building. There’s a sweet shop, a haberdashery, two jewellers, several vintage clothes stores, an excellent little book shop, and a new Asian deli.

It’s Lewes’ answer to a mall, in miniature. 

A review of Laporte's in Lewes

I like to go to Laporte’s on sunny but breezy days. Their garden is surrounded by a high flint wall which captures the heat of the day, but excludes the wind. You feel like a particularly fortunate lizard, basking in the sunshine while being served your food. There’s also a bit of shade if you get overheated.

They do a good line in simple lunches (sandwiches or salads with local ingredients), generous vegetarian specials (carrot, coriander and lime fritters were on the menu last time I was there), but they are best known for their all-day breakfasts.

The French toast with bacon is particularly good. The toast looks hefty – each slice an inch high – yet it is gloriously light and gooey inside. It makes the perfect cushion for the bacon, especially once you’ve drizzled tangy blueberries and sweet maple syrup all over it.

Recently, they’ve opened a “chic shed” or garden room so you can shelter from the rain but still feel like you are outside. It’s arranged like a family’s much-loved outhouse with furniture stacked against the wall, cobwebs connecting garden forks with benches, and blackberries ripening above the skylight.

I sat in there the other day and had carrot cake and a cup of tea. The cake was very well-judged – moist and full of flavour, yet light and springy. I leafed through a magazine while the sun warmed my ankles and children squabbled outside.

There is also a little shop as you walk into the cafe. It’s like a mini encyclopaedia of local produce. There’s fresh fruit and veg (I got some good quinces from them last autumn), cheese, milk, bacon, sausages, flour, pulses, preserves, chocolate, cooking oils, honey, dips, and so on.

A great Lewes cafe. Definitely worth a visit. 

Tea, cake and a stroll at Charleston



Tea and apple tart at Charleston - and very nice it was too

I’ve been to Charleston - haunt of the Bloomsbury group - to go to the literary festival and look round the house, but this week I went just to have tea and cake at their cafe.


The walk

Charleston farmhouse is on several footpaths so we first went on a 30-minute stroll along the hemline of the Downs, just as they start to billow upwards.

We heard skylarks, smelt silage, and saw elderflower spilling from the hedgerows.

If you want a longer walk you could climb up to the top of the Downs for a view out to sea in one direction, and over the Sussex Weald in the other.

The remains of my plum cake

The cafe, Charleston

The cafe looks small from the outside but has an airy interior and a courtyard garden. We tucked ourselves out of the wind in the garden, and ordered plum cake and apple tart.

The plum cake was delicious in an understated way. It was a light sponge with plums delicately nestling near the bottom. The apple tart was also a classy affair – crisp pastry, moist sweet apple and sultanas tucked here and there.

Sparrows perched nearby in the hope we would leave some crumbs, but they were denied.

Sussex credentials: the cakes are made locally.

Opening hours: the cafe is open 12-5pm, Wednesday to Sunday.