Back of the net: chef James Cochran will open his new spot next month
(Picture: Press handout)James Cochran, the celebrated London chef best known for Islington restaurant 12:51, has announced his latest project — a sports bar he’s “been searching for my whole life”.
Cochran and the 12:51 team will open Valderrama’s — named for Colombian football great Carlos Valderrama — on July 7, promising beer, cocktails and a menu taken from the chef’s lockdown-born takeaway project, Around the Cluck. It will open five minutes’ walk from 12:51, on Upper Street and, somewhat unusually for a new opening in 2022, will be open seven days a week.
While there’s no word on staff hairstyles, the bar is looking to take a little from Valderrama in style. The number 10 had his heyday in the late Eighties and throughout the Nineties, and as such the new opening will be decorated with murals meant to evoke the time, including one made with vintage football kits. Likewise, DJs, who will play on Fridays and Saturdays, will play hip hop, RnB and pop hits from the era.
The new opening, which will seat 48 and has an outside terrace, marks the first permanent home for Around the Cluck, which Cochran first devised in the summer of 2020. The menu is built around the chef’s most famous dish, his buttermilk fried chicken, which comes in burgers — the Original sees it paired with blue cheese mousse, bacon scratchings and Cochran’s proprietary scotch bonnet jam, while the Hear Me Now pairs chicken strips with a cheese and truffle fondue and smoked mushroom relish — and on its own with sauces, which includes chicken gray mayonnaise and a riff on chip shop curry sauce. Sides being served include gourmet takes on hash browns, and jerk-spice fries.
There is also a cocktail list planned — frozen margaritas are a given — and beers from Beavertown on tap.
While Cochran and his team are quick to stress that Valderrama’s won’t be a sports bar in the mould of, say, Riley’s, there will be projectors and screens around the bar and the likes of the World Cup, the women’s Euros, Wimbledon and various F1 races will be shown.
Cochran, who has also appeared on Sunday Brunch and the Great British Menu, said of his new project: “Valderrama’s is exactly the type of bar I’ve been searching for my whole life.
“I’m so happy to have found a permanent home for Around the Cluck, and where better than a bar I’ve created with some of the best in the business. This is a game changer. It’s a sports bar, but we’re inclusive — there’s no discrimination here, just good drinks, great food and an amazing atmosphere.
“I can’t wait to open the doors and show everyone what we’ve made for them.”
