James, who has just turned 36, has lived in and around Lewes all his life and has spent his entire career in the hospitality and catering business. For years he was involved in the entertainment industry, cooking up delicious cuisine for many big stars.
But eventually he yearned to do something new and different, and that ambition saw him return to his roots in Sussex.
“The chance of running the cafe at The Needlemakers came about,” he says.
Having taken over the cafe in 2017, he set about creating the ideal space to complement the dishes he creates from the finest locally sourced ingredients.
James embarked on a spell of hard labour, building the new cafe himself, including all the woodwork. The result is an open-plan layout where you can see the food being prepared.
“It was a learning curve for me, I wanted to create a cafe that was different from any other in Lewes,” he says. “I get bored going to places, especially the chains, where it is all about the image and the food is unimaginative.
“I’ve made the cafe and kitchen open-plan so that nothing is hidden. I want to produce nice, fresh food in front of my customers, the kind they wouldn’t get elsewhere in the town, and the response has been wonderful.
“I’m a strong believer using only the very best local produce available, so we focus on a fairly small daily menu. We bake virtually everything ourselves and offer three lovely different salads every day of the week, alongside our freshly made soups.”
Backyard Cafe has built up a devoted following of local regulars.
“We get a lot of visitors too, of course, who want to visit the The Needlemakers, but most of our regulars are people who either live or work in Lewes.” explains James.
“We offer discounts to our loyal customers because I like to take care of them.
“This is a very personal business and from a chef’s point of view, I get a lot of satisfaction from customers’ feedback, people who make a point of coming up to the counter to say how delicious their coffee has been, or that they’ve never eaten better scrambled eggs.”
Among the favourites at the Backyard Cafe is their unique Mexican Breakfast, and about 80 percent of their food is vegan, with vegetarian or vegan options available on other dishes.
Honest, down-to-earth and proudly local. These are the qualities that define multi-talented chef James Benning the brawn, brains and driving force behind Backyard Cafe.
