Hit The Joint

Warren Dean’s love of food has always gone hand-in-hand with connection and the joyful, noisy pleasure of eating messy food with your favourite people. “Back home [in South Africa], the most important place in the house was the kitchen and our weather was so good that our kitchen was outside barbecuing or brai-ing,” says the chef and restaurateur. “That’s where we were predominately; there’d be family, there’d be friends and, even if the barbecue was horrendous, you always had a good time – you never had a bad memory. It was that simple.” Which is why, when he opened award-winning, cult-favourite The Joint in 2012, he decided to make American BBQ its speciality – nothing brings people together quite like sitting around a table laden with piles of sticky, smoked ribs covered in a house-made Korean sauce, spicy chicken wings, and enormous burgers packed with 16-hour smoked pulled pork or deep-fried chicken and laden with cheese, all rounded off with a plate of deep-fried Oreos. “It’s juicy, it’s smoky, it’s everything that makes you happy,” he says. “It’s good, messy fun.”

Dean started cheffing out of necessity in his late teens as a way to make ends meet when he came to London and was caught off guard by how expensive the city was. Back then, his focus was on the high-pressure, low-paid world of fine dining. He worked in Michelin-starred restaurants for top chefs including Jun Tanaka and Jocky Petrie, in private members’ clubs from Annabel’s to Mayfair’s George, and spent a year travelling the world, staying in five-star hotels and whipping up meals for Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and the rest of the McLaren Formula 1 team. But the margins in fine dining are notoriously tight, and a stint in Cornwall – helping set up a Michelin star-winning seafood restaurant with a successful fish and chip takeaway on the side – sparked the idea of conjuring takeaway-style food, really well. So, in 2012, before London’s street-food scene and food-truck obsession had taken off, and just as Instagram was gaining serious traction, Dean opened The Joint.

It started as a pop-up in Brixton Market that fast gained notoriety and awards for its incredible food – and attracted snaking queues of thousands every weekend. Since then it’s become a permanent fixture, been joined by another outpost in Tooting Market and, in July 2019, a third restaurant at the Golf Driving Range on the Peninsula. Serving up a plentiful supply of cocktails and beer to wash down all that mouth-watering smoked meat, it’s a laid-back, joyous affair – all wooden tables, colourful contemporary art and a regular lineup of live musicians and DJs to help fuel the festive atmosphere. Best of all, there’s a recently added sun trap of a terrace (complete with umbrellas and heaters to combat the unpredictable weather) that’s just waiting to be your summer go-to. You’ll find Dean in the open kitchen with the loyal band of chefs that have been cooking alongside him since The Joint first opened, conjuring his favourite food and having a blast watching you enjoy it. “My best, honestly favourite thing in the world is when you give food to a table,” he says. “You see people take that first bite and, subconsciously, without them realising, they do that little nod of appreciation to themselves. It’s amazing.”