Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 19/06/2026 20:29:00

On Castle Square in central Brighton, this branch of the Be At One cocktail bar chain sits among the shops, cafes, and nightlife of the city centre, a short distance from the seafront and the Royal Pavilion. It runs to the group's established formula: a drink-led venue centred on cocktails and a lively party atmosphere rather than a food-focused operation. The Be At One brand began in May 1998, when bartenders Steve Locke, Leigh Miller, and Rhys Oldfield opened their first bar on Battersea Rise in south London. Having met while working at TGI Fridays, they set out to create a cocktail bar that put drink quality and service first, with a menu that grew to around 101 cocktails and a style the founders summed up as cocktail theatre. That model expanded across the country over the next two decades, reaching more than thirty bars in prime town and city locations before the Stonegate Pub Company acquired the chain in July 2018 in a deal reported at roughly 50 million pounds. The original founders left the business at completion, while the bars carried on trading under the Be At One name and recognisable format. Brighton's bar offers the same blend of classic and house cocktails, frequent happy hours and promotions, and resident DJs who keep the floor moving later in the evening. Its position on Castle Square, close to the shopping district and the city's busy bar scene, makes it a convenient base for after-work drinks and weekend nights out in a city known for going out. The brand became known for its bartender culture, with staff drilled to mix a long classic-and-contemporary list quickly and entered into internal cocktail competitions, part of the broader cocktail-bar boom in Britain through the 2000s and 2010s. Group bars generally lead with two-for-one and happy-hour deals earlier in the week and build to a DJ-led party mood at weekends. Brighton has one of the most concentrated nightlife scenes on the south coast, and the Castle Square site sits close to the Lanes, the seafront, and the city's main shopping streets, placing it among a dense cluster of bars and clubs that draw both residents and the city's many weekend visitors.