The winners of the most recent series of Raymond Blanc’s reality show The Restaurant have just opened a bar on Goodge Street. JJ and James’s new joint – the London Cocktail club at 61 Goodge Street will be ‘a celebration both of Britishness and of London's cosmopolitanism’. The eye-popping design is from the people who brought us Shoreditch bar Calloo Callay.
Food-wise, you can expect British-style tapas, so that’s British pickled quails' eggs, extra crunchy pork crackling, sausage lollipops with Colman's mustard; rump steak and horseradish crème fraîche lollipops, a tankard of chips and cocktail sauce as well as a cheeseboard and pudding cocktails. As for the cocktails – are you brave enough to try the Oyster Bomb with Jägermeister & spiced Red Bull jelly?
At the time of the programme, JJ and James were surprise winners, the Guardian describing their win as ‘They didn't so much snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as dive down its gullet and yank it back by the ankles.’
But as Blanc explains in a blog published today, ‘Many of you may disagree with the choice I have made, as it is well known that I have chosen a chef that cannot cook! But I can assure you that this particular weakness of JJ (that he cannot cook) will be swept away by his obvious talent for cocktail-making; the choice was made on his strengths not on his weakness. His cooking may be naïve, but his taste is immaculate.’
