Two New Indie Cafés In Town – Brasil Vegano And Sicool Sicilian

Published on: 21 Dec, 2019
Updated on: 21 Dec, 2019

By Hugh Coakley

Two new ‘indie’ cafes opened in Guildford last week; Brasil Vegano, an exciting new vegan café in Madrid Road just up from the Co-op and five minutes walk from the railway station and Sicool Cafe, a Sicilian rosticceria, in the town centre in The Shambles.

Brasil Vegano, just opened on Madrid Road, five minutes walk from the station.

Billed as Guildford’s first 100% plant based café. the Brasil Vegano is run by a multi-talented family team of Tutti and Zizzi Serra, both painters and from Brazil, their son, also called Tutti, a tattooist with a studio in Drury Lane in London, and his wife, Laura Serra, a veterinary nurse on the University of Surrey Research Park.

Tutti junior said: “I always dreamed of having a café where we could gather a bunch of people together with the same purpose of love and respect, a nice place to meet, for art exhibitions and music.”

From left: Tutti, holding the café mascot, Mel, Laura, Tutti Junior and Zizzi standing in front of a wall in the Brasil Vegano cafe that has been painted by Tutti Senior.

And, if the steady stream of people buying coffee, cakes and meals is anything to go by, they have hit on a success, both in location with students and commuters passing by but also with the increasingly popular vegan concept.

Spacious and warm atmosphere in the Brasil Vegano cafe.

The café has a lovely warm atmosphere; spacious, with half a dozen tables, seating for around 20 and comfortable settees to lounge in. It feels well established and relaxed considering that it opened less than a week ago.

All the food is cooked by Tutti and Zizzi. It ranges very satisfactorily from snacks to light meals and burgers. As you would expect, the coffee is great.

The other new ‘Indie’ is Sicool Food in The Shambles, offering a “an authentic Sicilian experience.” said Alessio Taormina, with a huge, charming smile.

From left: Gianfranco Taormina, Barbara Calafiore and Alessio Taormina, in the new Sicilian cafe, Sicool, in The Shambles.

“We are a Sicilian rosticceria which is like an Italian fast food,” he said, “But we don’t like to call it fast food because the quality is so high.”

Why Guildford? “You find places like this all over Palermo. But there is nothing like it here.” said Alessio.

Some of the treats on offer in Sicool, the Sicilian café in The Shambles.

“And people really like it. They have been coming back. Already we have regular customers even though we only opened on Sunday, the 15th.”

There are four partners in the café venture; Alessio and his father, Gianfranco and Barbara Calafiore and her partner, Enes Kudic.

Barbara and Gianfranco are the chefs and they both love to cook the delicious Sicilian cuisine.

The extensive Sicool menu with an exciting range of Sicilian foods.

Barbara said: “It comes from a very poor tradition so it is very simple but unique. Each dish has five or six ingredients at most but it is amazing food with amazing flavours.”

Their café is right in the centre of Guildford, just off the busiest part of the High Street in The Shambles. Alessio said that they had been busier than expected. “But we need to be known,” he said. “We will be working on Facebook and Instagram to make sure that people know we are here.”

One satisfied Sicool customer told The Guildford Dragon NEWS: “I am going to put this on social media. It was excellent.” High praise indeed!

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