Exclusive: KOKO’s new public cafe to launch on April 27

Camden’s 122-year-old music venue KOKO has undergone a three-year, £70 million restoration and will finally reopen later this month. Much of KOKO, beyond the theatre, will be members’ only. We’ll come back to all that another day.

Cafe KOKO will be open to the public and will launch on April 27. It’s a new tap bar and pizzeria with a menu devised by executive chef Andreas Engberg (ex-La Petite Maison). It has a late licence, will serve New York style pies, and there’s a “signature cheesecake selection” for those who enjoy those creamy American wedges.

CODE had a look around last month and an announcement claiming the space to have been “beautifully designed” is no overstatement. The cafe runs along Bayham Street – a former hangout for Amy Winehouse, and Charles Dickens decades before her – and has been converted from an old piano factory dating back to 1800. Pirajean Lees, alongside KOKO’s creative director Olly Bengough, has done a formidable job on the interiors and the ad hoc music shows and other events will have a stylish home.

As far as the pizzas go, the bases will be New York by construction but “Italian in flavour”. San Marzano tomatoes will make a regular appearance; ‘nduja, ever-popular, will be bandied around willingly; and Calabrian chilli features on the menu more than once. Breakfast dishes include Sicilian baked eggs and coffee will be a focus. But really the food is a makeweight for the music and the art. 

“KOKO’s overall mission when it reopens its doors is to support musicians and artists of the future, and Cafe KOKO will play a key part of this endeavor, with a stage that allows rising talent to play intimate live performances,” said the team. 

An enviable art and photography collection, curated – ah, the correct use of the word! – by Katie Heller, who is ex-Sotheby’s and Soho House, has been exhibited on the walls, and work by the emerging Belgian artist Joachim Lambrechts will enliven the menus and takeaway pizza boxes.