Andy Jones chats to Absolutely about Wrexham FC, “Boiling Point,” and opening a new restaurant in South Woodford.
A Cinematic Life
You could write a film about Andy Jones’s life—and in a way, it’s already been done.
“Boiling Point was directed by one of my best friends, Phil Barantini, and naming Stephen Graham’s character after me was pretty cool,” Andy grins about, well, Andy Jones from the hit film. “We lived together for years in East London, and when he had the budget to do a feature, there was only one place that he was going to do it. He decided to keep all the signs up with Jones & Sons because, bizarrely, all those years ago, when we first opened, he was the one to come up with the name ‘Jones and Sons’. It was such a bizarre full-circle moment having his film shot in my restaurant that he had named all those years ago.”
Expanding Horizons
The film setting aside, Jones & Sons has become an iconic restaurant and cocktail bar in Dalston—and now a second Jones & Sons has opened its doors in South Woodford.
“I actually wasn’t thinking about a second site until the restaurant that we first took our son to in Walthamstow became available,” Andy explains. “It wasn’t quite right to be a Jones and Sons, but then the letting agent said that he had one more place for me to look at. He took me to the site, and I just knew there and then that I had to have it.
“I have lived a couple of miles away from there for the past 12 years, and it just didn’t feel like there was anything to the scale that we do in the area,” he says on South Woodford. “It has 200 covers, multiple dining areas, two outdoor terraces, a private dining room, lots of parking… it’s just a dream site, and when I saw it, I knew I couldn’t say no!”
The New Venue
Located within the Elmhurst estate E18, just off the high road in South Woodford, the impressive new Jones & Sons site takes over the space previously occupied by Elmo’s Pizza. Split over two floors, the new restaurant, bar, and events space offers up to 150 covers inside and 50 covers on the outside terrace. The upper ground floor features a vibrant bar area and two distinct dining spaces, while the lower ground floor features an open kitchen with an intimate chef table, a cosy cocktail bar, and a versatile function room catering to private dinners and events.
“It’s a more refined product than we have in Dalston,” Andy adds. “I have grown up, and I feel that this restaurant is a more grown-up departure from what I have been doing.”
From Football to Film
The career of Andy Jones has certainly evolved over the past 25-odd years, which actually began on the football pitch.
“It is pretty cool now to say that I started out at Wrexham Football Club, which is now owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney – I am sure you’ve seen the documentary [Welcome to Wrexham, the huge Disney+ hit],” he smiles. “I was there from 16–19 years, and then went to America to play for a year when I was 19. I came home and played two seasons in the National League, and then, when I moved down to London, I signed for Enfield Town, where I played up until I was 30. So ultimately, I never gave up; I just fell down the leagues, which is what happens with a lot of youngsters when they fall out of full-time football.”
Transition to Acting
Next came acting. “It was always something I fancied doing as a kid, but football always took centre stage,” he explains. “I went to drama college for one year when I came to London, and then started work as a jobbing actor. I was on Hollyoaks, Eastenders, Miranda, Emmerdale, and I had a very small ‘blink, and you’ll miss me’ part in a film called Keeping Mum with Patrick Swayze, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Maggie Smith. I also starred in Sarah Lancashire’s directorial debut called Viva Las Blackpool as one of the younger leads and featured in an episode of Doctors.
“The thing that made me give up acting was the fact that I did three episodes of Casualty, playing three different characters over a 12-year span, so I knew it was going nowhere because the only thing that changed was my haircut,” he laughs. “The final nail in the coffin was when I screen tested for a regular on Emmerdale, and I really thought I got the part; however, they went with someone else after many rounds of screen testing and offered me just one episode. I was just about to have my first child and knew I just had to give it up.”
Embracing Hospitality
Perhaps working in hospitality was written in the stars. “I grew up in my parents’ hotel, not a rich or posh hotel, just a 2* on the beachfront in North Wales, but it gave me a great grounding in all things hospitality,” he says.
In his 20s, when football and acting were not quite paying the bills, he took up a job managing at a pub on Broadway Market called the Cat & Mutton and gained a bit of a following for putting on good food, good events, and good service.
“The pub gained huge popularity, and I knew that if I could do it for someone else, I could do it for myself. So in 2013, I left and opened Jones & Sons shortly after.”
Passion for the Industry
“Annoyingly, this industry courses through my veins, but I love it,” he laughs. “I love the buzz of a full restaurant. I love the silence of the table when the food arrives. I love people returning for special events, birthdays, weddings, and when they bring their first child into Jones & Sons. I love every wedding couple that we have done over the past 11 years, I think we must have done 200 weddings in the past 11 years. I love the film sets that we cater for where we go in and make a difference to people’s days—I have a genuine passion and love for all of the areas that we have branched out to with Jones & Sons.”
Future Prospects
That goes for South Woodford, which has already been greeted rapturously. So… what comes next in the world of Andy Jones?
“In all honesty, I don’t know anymore,” he says. “Growing a business from one small restaurant to now over 100 staff in roughly 8 to 10 locations at a time with our TV and Film Catering division has been really hard. I have no investors, no loans, no overdrafts and have organically grown the business, which is amazing but hard all at the same time. I could go in one of two ways. Give my long-term staff shares in the business and take a step back to spend more time with my wife and kids before they grow up and think I’m too uncool to hang out or… sell the whole thing to the highest bidder, turn my phone off and sleep for a year! All jokes aside, I’m just looking to grow the popularity of our food offering in South Woodford and see what happens.”
For more information, visit Jones & Sons London.
