Johnny Boy’s, an all-day neighbourhood restaurant serving comfort food inspired by the multicultural communities of Southern Californian, opens today in Stoke Newington.
Founder Julian Dennis, known in east London for his Chinese restaurant Facing Heaven and dive bar Easy 8 in London Fields, was born in Los Angeles to a Portuguese mother and Puerto Rican father.
For his latest venture he is looking beyond the all-American diner to channel the family-run joints he ate in while growing up in SoCal, where “flavours became borderless” as Mexican, Greek, Jewish or Japanese immigrants would cook their own and each others’ dishes.
The menu runs from burritos, crab tostadas and pastrami dips to beef chilli, Mexican rice and beans and Hawaiian-style macaroni salad, with sweet dishes like French toast. To drink there is bottomless filter coffee along with a selection of sodas, beers, wines and house cocktails, Including an Orange Bang Sour (bourbon, vanilla, orange, bitters) or a Michelada (beer, clamato, salsa inglesa, Tapatio, chamoy).
