Joe's Southern Kitchen to open in Kentish Town
Based in Kentish Town, the 3,500 sq ft American South-inspired venue will start trading in March - 18 months after the brand unveiled its first premises in Covent Garden.
“There’s an appetite for new restaurants in this area where the market isn’t saturated but there’s lots of people,” restaurant operations manager Jim Robertson told BigHospitality. “The restaurant scene in NW5 is about to explode and we want to be part of it.”
Occupying the former site of Kentish Canteen on Kentish Town Road, Joe’s will be spread over two floors and feature a 90-cover ground floor restaurant overseen by executive chef Trevor Tobin, who has previously worked at Steam & Rye, The Big Easy and Goodman and head chef Mark Jeevaratnam, who created the original Joe’s menu.
Dishes including Devilled Eggs and Beef Short Rib will be on the menu, alongside the new venue’s signature recipe sweet tea brined fried chicken with lemon salt & tabasco honey.
The site will also feature an outside 20-cover BBQ and dining space, along with a basement bar called Jailbird, which will play old fashioned blues, classic country, northern soul and rockabilly.
Expansion plans
Robertson confirmed the business, part of the Maxwell's restaurant group, had been looking to open a second restaurant for a while but had struggled to find sites and added that premiums were going ‘up and up’.
“We would like to open three or four more in the next two or years, all in London Zone 1 or 2 where we have other restaurants and clubs,” he said.
Robertson added that a former employee, who spent seven years working as a waiter at one of the company’s other restaurants before retraining as a plumber, electrician and builder, had secured the job of refurbishing the restaurant, which will be fitted out with Vintage Coca Cola signs, neon American billboards, and scarlet leather seats.
