Le Braye Café in line for a major facelift
Saturday 25th April 2009, 2:57PM BST.
An artist’s impression of the revamped Le Braye Café
Le Braye Café, on the Five Mile Road, could soon be transformed into an ultra-modern café and restaurant complete with an ice cream parlour and beach shop.
It is the latest in a string of developments along the unspoilt section of coastline that includes the Watersplash, El Tico and the old Relais des Mielles pub in L’Etacq.
If plans are passed, Le Braye Café will be knocked down and replaced with an open-plan café that will serve alcohol and stay open until 10 pm.
Although the café was only updated four years ago, owner Tony Pirozzolo said that it was still in need of a revamp.
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Looks awful! As for allowing alcohol…..I would think that is a really bad idea!
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My family and I are frequent visitors to Cafe le Braye and think that this is a fantastic replacement for the tired building currently standing at the head of the slip. We can not wait for the Planning Department to see sense and approve it without further delay!
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Sells alcohol. Open late. Open plan design with large glass frontage.The local vandals and troublemakers must already be rubbing their hands together in anticipation.
And with the building having all the stylistic beauty of an unfinished construction site the owner should have no problem getting Freddie Cohen to give it the big thumbs up.
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NO NO NO! Le Braye is part of my childhood and upbringing, I really don’t want to see it changed like this. It has been part of the way of life for so many years, can it not be refurbished and replenished in the same style? Losing the Le Braye Cafe as we know and love it would be like losing a long standing tradition. For some weird reason my thoughts keep straying to an upside down boat in St. Helier, total disaster, I really miss the good old West Park Cafe… don’t do the same to Le Braye.
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I like Pam’s comment “upside down boat in St. Helier, total disaster”. Pam have you ever been down there? I bet you’re one of those armchair complainers that never gets out to see the real world. The upside down boat is a fantastic cafe with very good food, it’s such a great space to be around on a nice day (and also a damp rainy day). Remember the old cafe had no inside seating? A part from the difficult parking around there, I try to get to Le Frigate as often as I can.
Le Braye cafe needs updating before it falls down. Sometimes things change – get over it! Anyway, it’s got to look better than the Eltico development that looks like it’s about 5 stories high!
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Old, delapidated buildings attract more vandalism than new ones, making this a brilliant idea. People take their own alcohol to the beach at the moment. At least now someone will have the power to not sell to anyone who is already too far gone.
I think the design looks great. Reminiscing is fine but come on! The current building surely won’t last long and doesn’t look good, it certainly won’t encourage a tourist driving by to stop and investigate. If we want more tourism then buildings like this, in locations like this, are exactly what we need, yet planning continually approve big, hideous offices blocking some of our best views!
I go to Le Braye regularly just now, I wonder how many of the above do? I go because I like the food, and the view (I rarely wander onto the beach). Now I get to do this in a lovely building with better facilities. Roll on approval
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J Blowman #5, I have to agree. I remember when I first saw the ‘upside-down boat’, loved it. It’s so easy on the eye compared to the very functional style of the buildings round about (most with hideous colours to them also). And for a ‘disaster’ it seems to be a very popular cafe.
Anyway, the full article of the above mentioned making more of the view, so presumably we can enjoy food at Le Braye with a better view than we get just now?
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Pam, what ‘style’ is that? You can’t be very old because from friends’ photos I’ve seen Le Braye has had huge changes even in recent years.
Why are people so against actually good-looking buildings when Jersey is full of really, really hideous office blocks?
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I think this is a great idea. The old cafe is now just a tired old building crying out to be updates.
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I remember the complaining when old man gibby had to give up his coach and move into the building newly built by the states,(early 60s ?)things never change.
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The design of this cafe appears to have been lifted from a Thai beach resort. All it lacks is the ladyboys dancing on the tables.
Much more suitable would be something in a traditional granite style reflecting the heritage of the area.
“Old, delapidated buildings attract more vandalism than new ones, making this a brilliant idea.”
That may apply elsewhere, but in Jersey old and delapidated buildings are relatively hard to find. So our vandals tend to be more liberal in their choice of target.
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The Building was refurbed four years ago,so what is the motive here..?let us not be saddled with another totally out of context monstrosity…what is it exactly about the value of untouched that you people can’t understand,the value of coming out of town is to leave all that 20th century glass, metal and bollards dross behind and reconnect with nature,are we to become nothing but money whores……?
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Craig & Truthseeker…
What’s this got to do with money? The old building might have been refurbished, but I was down there today and I don’t see it lasting long. Still, maybe you want yet another Jersey building left to go to rack and ruin. That’s a real Jersey problem, let something become totally delapidated and dysfunctional rather than spending the money to bring it back up to scratch, but then don’t let anyone who is willing to spend their own hard-earned cash touch it because it’s ‘protected’. Protected is great, but a protected hideous dump or a new functioning building? Get real.
The current building doesn’t fit in any way with its beautiful surroundings.
It’s impossible to build something that looks like sand dunes and sea, but at least with glass you get something that reflects these natural beauties… that’s as ‘fitting in’ as you’re going to get. That’s why current buildings often use reflective surfaces, they reflect their surroundings which is as close as you will get to those surroundings.
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And Craig, I can assure you that delapidated buildings are very easy to find in Jersey! Of course they can’t be restored at someone else’s expense but they can’t be destroyed either. So they’ll be left till they are just piles of dust and hopefully then the States will allow someone to do something about them.
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“at least with glass you get something that reflects these natural beauties” -Leah Holmes.
Well yes. Only trouble is, down “Sin Twon’s” the glass needs cleaning after every high tide.
Anyone remember trying to see through the salty windows at El Tico?
Joking apart, the new Braye cafe will benefit from a view of the bay if the architects can put their mind to achieving this.
It will be interesting to see if El Tico’s replacement manages to have the same appeal as the old place.
Hopefully they will improve the entrance door to be winter proof!
Not sure, by the way, why they will need to sell alcohol at Le(sic) Braye.
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