The lowdown: Liam Cotter, co-founder, Voya

How did you get into hospitality?
I was born in Brighton so Voya always felt like a homecoming for me. I was in London for best part of two decades. I started up there as a graphic design student but I started working in bars very soon after arriving. By my second year of uni, I was running one of the very first All Star Lanes bars, one of the foremost bars in London, certainly for a whiskey collection. I found myself in charge of a really high level team at a very young age and it propelled me into what was a love affair with hospitality, but bars have always been the foremost string to my bow.

I was running high volume bars such as The Box and then working for Michel Roux Jnr in his first bar above his Roux Parliment Square restaurant. It was a nice opportunity for me to understand a bit more about the food world. The kitchen was run by Professional MasterChef winner Steve Groves, and there was a certain Jamie Halsall working as a sous chef, who is now at Cin Cin. I was head bartender and bar manager at Hawksmoor Spitalfields at the time when it was on the verge of winning its first awards as the best restaurant bar in Tales of Cocktail festival. I then worked as a consultant for various spirit brands, running experiential events, but primarily becoming a drink stylist and then ending up being a drinks developer for various restaurants and I did that for about seven years.

‍How did Voya come about?
Lockdown was the great leveler, it was a chance to come back to Brighton, spend some time with family, and that’s how Voya began. My passion for the crossover between hospitality, food, drinks and music had really been cultivated over years of being in London when we used to run parties in Peckham. We had a lot of vinyl at that time, a lot of big record collections. We wanted to try and build a sense of ‘let’s go out and dance as well as be part of the food and drinks world’, and that paved the way for how Voya was set up. We’ve always talked about trying to merge a classical cocktail bar with small sharing pan-European/Asian plates and set up a DJ booth that isn’t just a trestle table in the corner and with the right acoustics and the right intention of the thing.

At the start of Voya, we were only doing week on, week off, two services per month and we kind of created a rod for our own back. People weren’t quite sure when we were open and then it became this elusive beast. Although we’ve been open for a couple of years now, our full time service only started last July, so we’re approaching our first birthday of permanency. I feel that the foundation of Voya is a more stable and we’re here to stay.

I run this fifty-fifty with Elina who used to run Oseta cafe which was previously on the site that is now Voya. Out head chef is Tom Hardy, and yes, that really is his name, who has worked at places like Plateau, The Set and El Bollilo (now Mare). We’ve got Ed Warner who is effectively a general manager for us here. One day he’s sous-sommelier to me and the next day he’s supporting Tom in the kitchen as a sous chef. He’s a dancer by trade and a wonderful floor server by nature.

‍Music is a key element of Voya and the fusion of cocktail bar with small plates and DJ booth that you’ve pioneered in Brighton has proved to be very influential in the cityn. Do you have a favourite genre of music or a favourite artist at the moment that you particularly love?
At the moment, one of the things that I’m really most moved by is a label called Gondwana, which is run by Matthew Halsall. Anything on that label is brilliant. In particular, I would say there’s some wonderful interpretive flute jazz coming out from the likes of Chip Wickham, who is originally from Brighton. An album to listen to during our setup and breakdown at Voya is often Matthew Halsall’s An Ever Changing View - an incredible blend of spiritual electronica and jazz to keep us grounded.

Are you a coffee or tea person and how do you take it?
I am a coffee person and I take it strong and I take it milky. My usual order is a cortado. Brighton has an unbelievable wealth of brilliant coffee shops and coffee roasters, but when I think about locality and quality, I think mostly about Coffee at 33. The owner Taras is Ukrainian and has been on Trafalgar Street for quite a long time. He has another place in Lisbon and he’s just opened 33 Ways near to Preston Park. I think what those guys are doing there on a micro scale with minimalism and real curiosity and quality is really impressive. They bring in interesting single varieties, they roast their own beans and they bake a lot of their own pastries. We actually serve their house espresso here at Voya. That’s my kind of coffee.

‍What’s your go to restaurant in Brighton?
A Persian restaurant called Shayan on Western Road. They are quietly doing delicious food in a very traditional sense. There’s always a seat and you go there knowing that you’re going to get looked after with a little bit of love.

‍What is the next restaurant on your hit list?
The Plimsoll in Finsbury Park, London. I think what’s a really interesting space at the moment is the way that pubs are evolving into more simplistic food bistros again but with slightly more considered plating. It’s not so much the gastropub reemergence, but it’s kind of a new version of that, which is quite fun. One of the most comfortable places you could possibly be at is in a pub, and I think places like The Plimsoll are really leading the charge.

That do you think is the best food destination in the world?
I’m a sucker for French cuisine, but in particular, I think Marseille is an amazing place for food. It has been a real eye-opener for me in terms of its mixed cuisine with elements of North African and coastal French. It’s just a wonderfully expressive, vibrant place to go and have food and just explore.

‍What is your drink of choice?
If it’s a cocktail, then A classic daiquiri - as simple as a good white rum, lime and sugar. That’s really the perfect beverage. Otherwise, nothing quite beats a really well-made, long fermented pilsner or kolch.

‍Who do you most admire in the restaurant industry?

I think there’s a lot to be learned from Danny Meyer’s school of thought and his book Setting The Table. His restaurants, like Union Square Cafe in New York, have always been a big inspiration regarding the hospitality style that I’ve always talked about. It’s enlightened hospitality; about having an emotional, empathetic connection to every person that comes into the same space that you occupy.

‍The details
Voya
34 North Rd, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1YB
voyabrighton.co.uk‍