Longrain on Church Road gets an alcohol licence, but closing hours are earlier than requested.
Thursday to Saturday, they can sell until midnight. On Sundays, sales stop at 10:30 pm. Avante Ltd owns the business.
Robert Webb, age 77, runs Avante Ltd. He’s also a director at Food for Friends. Webb directs the South East Leisure Group too.
The application calls it a café bar. Webb said it will act more like a restaurant. They’ll serve pizza and pasta. The license requires a focus on food.
Waiters and waitresses must serve all alcohol. Customers can only buy alcohol to take away outside. This area is covered by a council pavement license.The license ends at 9 pm.
An older license was already active. Webb stated there were issues with the transfer form for it. He said Church Road changed since the first license. Longer hours might not be suitable now.
The panel decided this wasn’t a totally new application. It was more about restoring things as they were. The place operated smoothly before.
They agreed on new hours and conditions. Granting this license felt correct to them. Webb was linked to the place before.
He directed Ole Ole and Zahara, now closed. These were on the same site. He also ran other restaurant businesses that failed. Webb previously directed Stagfleet, now dissolved too. Stagfleet bought Brighton gay club Revenge for £1.5 million back in 2004.
It also owned several local restaurant companies.