Brighton's Joogleberry Playhouse - cafe, cabaret, culture, jazz, flamenco - 14 - 17 manchester street, brighton, food, wine, cocktails, absinthe, entertainment until late


	Once upon a time… One cold January night in 2002 sister and brother Sue and Geoff sat up late plotting and planning a way to make a dream real. Pooling resources, skills and experience the two along with Perry, partner of said Geoff, set off on a mission to bring something new and wonderful to the world. They searched high and low for the right place to spread the joogleberry magic and finally stumbled across a crumbling but beautiful listed building in the heart of Brighton. They knew the moment they walked in the door that this was the one. Defying all odds they were handed the keys to the building in February 2003 and with the help of a fantastic bunch of trades people and friends have rebuilt and renovated 14 - 17 Manchester Street into the most fabulous and magical Joogleberry Playhouse. On 1 august 2007 it was time for a change and Sue and Geoff handed over the keys to new owners Bill Smith and Angi Mariani in the belief that they would be the perfect peopel tof take this wonderful venue to new heights - see news section for more info. Before all this…




			A long long time ago from 1918 - 1938 one of the biggest and most popular coffee houses in Vienna, Café Heffenhof, was founded and run by the grandparents and great uncle and aunt of Stefan Popper (dad to Sue and Geoff). The Herrenhof was a wonderful coffee house with live music and dancing as well as providing an informal meeting place for the most eminent witers and thinkers of the day. In 1938 the Nazis came and stole it from the family, some of whom did not survive the Holocaust. Stefan's direct family managed to leave as refugees and finally settled in the UK in 1959.

	When Stefan visited Sue and Geoff at Joogleberry he was struck by the similarities between the two places. Albeit that Café Herrenhof was on a much grander scale there is a feeling of reclaiming a heritage that was lost. As Stefan said 'it must be in the genes'.

web + print: www.simcoe.co.uk