Ground - Church Road, Hove

Food: Expensive looking sandwiches, small batch (not the small batch ) coffee, cakes and speciality teas

Child Friendliness: Poor

Access: Reasonable, but not encouraged 

Prices: Good, coffees and teas all around £2.50 - £2.90

Ambiance: Cool 40 somethings, middle aged men in Lycra (MAMILs), hipsters, serious newspaper reading types with small well behaved dogs. No kids at all even though it was half term

When I first started this blog I thought that I would come across this type of place a lot but I actually haven't! I was almost disappointed and beginning to wonder if this whole venture was pointless and that actually everywhere is baby-friendly. I think though, in retrospect, that I 'did' the easy places first. My visit to Ground was quite different than the others, firstly, Ivy was asleep, so I'm afraid Ivy didn't 'eat' Ground as my blog title suggests! Secondly, I wasn't alone, my Dad was down visiting and he came with me. When we first arrived there wasn't any spare tables so we were actually going to leave, the staff seemed disinterested in our plight but someone was just leaving and so offered us their table. The whole place was pretty crammed, we were rather close to our neighbours and it all felt a bit awkward. I had a few glares from the table next to us, a few 40-50 something friends and I had to squeeze the buggy in rather close to the hipster writing his novel on the adjacent table (I'm not making this up). 
The staff were cool...a little too cool for school but not unfriendly. I had tea for a change, Earl Grey, which was nice but I'm by no means a connoisseur and my Dad had an Americano that he said was 'fine' but he says everything is fine so it could have been excellent and probably was. Ivy was completely zonked out and happy so we stayed for quite a while and started to consider their sandwiches. However, not long after that wanton thought a woman near us literally gasped when Ivy woke up with a start as if she had never heard a child before, needless to say we made for a quick escape to have lunch elsewhere. I went up to the counter to enquire about a highchair for 'next time' as we were leaving - they have one...drama ensues where staff member looks around puzzled as if it has actually left the premises itself...I couldn't see it either. Sorry Ground but I don't think I'll be back to find it.