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Pictures: The Boris Johnson-themed Japanese restaurant at County Hall
London’s blonde-mopped mayor has had many a tribute to him in the capital; there’s Boris Bikes, there’s the oft-pedalled but as yet inexistant Boris Airport and now we’ve got the Boris restaurant.
You might not have put Boris and Japanese cuisine together normally, but County Hall’s Izakaya Boris has.
There’s a plastic cartoon-like icon of Boris (with a panda on his shoulder, riding a Boris bike) outside the restaurant, with the colourful motif repeated on the menu.
The question on everybody’s lips though is, “why?” Well, we went down to find out.
“The Boris-theme was part of the brief sent by the owner of the restaurant,’ explains Andy Chan, the designer behind the venue. (He said he'd rather not tell us the owner's name).
“We’re not sure exactly why but the owner always quite liked the idea of Boris and talks about him a lot, he likes his green policies, which is why the Boris bike is in the design.”
Do the snacks come with blonde wigs? Thankfully not.
“Food-wise the restaurant has no link to Boris but the style of the restaurant is to have a lot of art – it’s like a gallery.”
The Boris-themed menu (Source:City AM)
Sure enough, along with Boris, there is a lot of art in the venue – all designed by students at Kyoto School of Art. “The restaurant is Japanese pop-style,” confirms manager Julia Niyazoua.
The next big question is – will Boris be going down there for a bite to eat? City Hall wouldn’t say anything on the matter but the team in the restaurant were hopeful – and have been in touch with the man himself.
“We think he’ll probably come in. We sent him a paper toy made with his character on it, an egg-shaped weeble,” says Chan. “He responded saying ‘eggcellent.’”
Ah Boris, such a wordsmith.
Izakaya Boris (Source: City AM)
Pop-style Japanese art in restaurant by Kyoto art school students (Source: City AM)
Some samurais (Source: City AM)
Poster art in restaurant by Kyoto students (Source: City AM)