From a window table in the Bistro, I watched an imposing-looking off-roader pull into the mini lay-by. Two equally imposing blokes got out and exchanged pleasantries with passers-by.
"That's security," said a waiter. "We are a hotel and we like to keep it that way."
That was probably why, on the first Friday of 2010, I was able to emerge later to enjoy what is widely regarded as one of Brighton's coolest bars in the company of well turned out guests, not pub crawlers .
It's the du Vin group's fifth hotel, a 37-room venue snuggled away yards from the seafront in the historic area known as The Lanes.
