Pride Beside The Seaside!

This year's Brighton Pride summer festival started on Saturday 25th July and runs until Sunday 2nd August, with the main parade and park event taking place tomorrow, Saturday 1st August.

With up to 200,000 people expected to attend, the Pride Carnival Parade is one of Brighton's biggest summer events. The parade assembles at Madeira Drive from 11am, travelling along the seafront to West Street and then up to the clock tower. From there it's down North Street, turning left onto the Old Steine past the Pavilion, then up to London Road and finally Preston Park. The carnival in the park runs until 8pm (although other events in town keep going through the night!)

Banksy in Brighton

The other day we mentioned the Banksy graffiti on the side of the Prince Albert pub - and, in a minor coincidence, a couple of tourists called in at the weekend to ask where it was.

Well, the pub's on the same side of the road as us but is further up the hill on the corner of Frederick Place. On the side is Banksy's work, protected under a sheet of plastic.

The Laine Deli... not the Lane Deli

As we're sure you've noticed, there's an "i" in "Laine". That's because we're in the North Laine area of Brighton. But what's that "i" doing there, we hear you ask?

Well, we've done a bit more historical research. Laine is an old word for a plot of farming land: a type of field, really. There's some debate about whether it's simply another way of spelling "lane" - and no-one's really sure whether it was once "North Laines" instead - but this unusual word has been applied to the North Laine area for hundreds of years. These days North Laine is officially singular and, as any local resident will proudly tell you, isn't anything to do with "The Lanes" that border North Street in the middle of the town!

The world's largest cupcake

This is not the world's largest cupcake. It is, however, pretty big. It's our 'giant cupcake' celebration cake that'll serve up to 14 people - and it's available as part of our Outside Catering service for all kinds of events, including corporate breakfasts, business lunches and birthday parties.

If you're after the world's largest cupcake, you've just missed your chance. A shopping mall in the US city of Minneapolis has recently been displaying a 151-pound monster cake that was 2-foot wide, had 15 pounds of fudge filling and was covered in 60 pounds of yellow icing. Alas, despite being a 68kg record breaker, no-one was allowed to eat the cake... which was given to a local pig farm.

Our quarterly report

We were pretty excited when we'd been open for one month - and we were just as excited after our second month. We've now been at 31 Trafalgar Street for a quarter of a year, which is even more exciting. Thank you for being part of the excitement!

Trafalgar Street

The Laine Deli is towards the top of Trafalgar Street in the North Laine area of Brighton. We often describe the road as "the one that runs underneath the front of the railway station" but - having looked into the local history of the area - that's not always been the case.

It was originally known as Trafalgar Place and just started off with a few houses at the bottom of the hill. When Brighton got its railway station in 1841 the road became busier, with more houses and shops added - and soon there was a bridge across the top of the road.

Incidentally, the Prince Albert pub at the top of the road has (like the station) been around since the 1840s. It's the one with the Banksy graffiti and the John Peel mural. If you're interested in more local history, there's much more about the area on the North Laine Community Association website.

Soup

We think soup is one of those foods that's great whatever the weather. Rather like a nice cup of tea - warming in the winter, refreshing in the summer - it's become a popular choice with our customers through sun and rain. And as you'd expect, our "soup of the day" is always home-made.

Raw cola - a new recruit to our fridge

Avid fridge-watchers (yes, we know who you are!) may have spotted a new arrival at The Laine Deli. It's Raw cola, which is made from natural ingredients by Pepsi. It doesn't have artificial flavours, artificial sweetners or artificial colours - and that makes it sound pretty appealing, we think.

A local perspective

There's a lot of talk these days about 'food miles' and carbon footprints. It's not just a question of environmental awareness and supporting local businesses; it's common sense as well. The less travelling your food does, the fresher it arrives. That's why we're doing our best to source fresh fruit and vegetables locally when we can. It's not always practical to do it for everything - some things just won't grow in the UK! - but we're always on the lookout for good local produce whenever it's available. And if you'd like to know more about any of our ingredients, we're always happy to answer your questions.

A new menu at The Laine Deli

We've revised our menu this weekend. There's now a range of salad plates for the summer... and we've also included strawberries & ice cream. All we need now is the right weather!

Can coffee improve your memory?

A couple of cappuccinos every day could reverse memory problems, according to reports in the news today. Initial results from tests at the University of Florida seem to suggest that two decent coffees each day might protect against the development of memory problems and could also reverse existing signs of memory impairment. There's more about the positive effects of caffeine on the BBC website, which says more research is needed before we'll know exactly what we should be doing... but meanwhile, why not ask for an extra shot of expresso in your latte?

Running latte

Running latte: defined by UrbanDictionary.com as "showing up late to work because you stopped for coffee along the way".