Adam Johnson became a football fan by accident.
During a visit to his family in London, Johnson's brother-in-law presented him with a Tottenham jacket. And when he reached into one of the pockets, he found two tickets to a Spurs game.
At the time, Johnson may have preferred a root canal to a football game, but he agreed anyway. The experience was transformative.
“It was really exciting,” he said. “The fans left me speechless. The singing and atmosphere were so incredible that I was on board immediately.”
Last spring, Johnson, 44, and his wife Clarice, 39, found a way to tap into that football fever on this side of the pond, opening a restaurant in Culver City they called N17 The Lane, a name that everyone Tottenham fan will recognize. N17 is the postcode for the north London district of Haringey where the club is based, while The Lane refers to White Hart Lane, the iconic stadium that was home to Spurs for 118 years.
You could say that their strategy was inspired by the plot of “Field of Dreams”: if you build it, they will come. And it worked. A month after the small restaurant on the ground floor of a luxury apartment complex opened, it was packed with soccer fans. Two dozen others blocked the sidewalk to look out the windows and watch the European Championship final on five big-screen TVs.
“This is the vibe we want,” Johnson said. “Standing room. Highlighting[side]looking out the window.”
Football has been a part of the sports bar scene in Southern California for years. But for much of that time, British-style pubs, such as The Fox & Hounds in Studio City, Ye Olde Kings Head, and the recently closed Cock 'N' Bull in Santa Monica, catered primarily to small groups of expats who couldn't get the games. on cable television.
That began to change when ESPN and Fox began broadcasting European soccer widely. The major clubs responded with summer tours of the United States, and as more bars and restaurants began opening in the early hours of the morning to show the games, groups of supporters rewarded them by gathering in ever greater numbers.
Thus, Joxer Daly's in Culver City became a Liverpool bar, the Auld Dubliner in Long Beach is home to the Bay City Gooners, a group of Arsenal fans, while O'Malley's on Main in Seal Beach has been territory of Chelsea for five seasons.
Tim Jester and Tottenham fans at N17 The Lane in Culver City can't believe a Manchester United player hasn't received a yellow card while watching a match.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Soccer bar culture got another big boost when LAFC began playing in 2018. The club's energetic brand and community department made it a priority to recruit restaurants across Southern California to show the team's games, showering them with style. of the club if they did.
Six years later, LAFC has 77 registered partner bars across four counties, some of which host well-attended parties and others, like N17, who had three fans in attendance to watch a recent away game.
“Los Angeles is a cultural center and soccer is everywhere,” said Jimmy Lopez, who, as LAFC's brand and community manager, has been instrumental in growing the team's partnerships. “This sport is not what it was 10 years ago. I was surprised by the number of bars that came forward. So it's spreading by word of mouth and it's really cool to see it develop on its own.”
Creating that sense of community around Premier League soccer is even more important given the early morning kickoff time in Southern California.
“You build these little subcultures,” López said. “Football is better when you watch it with people from the same team as you. You sing songs and have a good time.
“You want to be with like-minded people. You want to high five and escape reality for those 90 minutes and have a good time. “It’s just fun.”
Six-month-old Conor hangs out with his parents Jimmy and Allie while watching a Tottenham Hotspurs game at N17 The Lane in Culver City.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Given Lopez's passion and knowledge of local fan culture, he was the first person Johnson contacted when he opened N17. He is still waiting for a response from Tottenham.
“We contacted them and it was difficult,” he said. “They never responded to us. We tried several times and then just [said] “Let's try it.”
N17 is not a typical sports venue. It doesn't feel like a man cave or a locker room, as there are no pennants, football scarves or sporting memorabilia hanging on the wall, just a couple of lone Tottenham dolls behind the bar. Nor is it an ersatz Irish pub with lots of dark wood, touches of green and a Guinness mirror. Instead, the decor is sparse, the room is light and airy, and there are small patio tables lining the sidewalk in hopes of an overflow crowd.
But it was last summer's Euro and Copa America, not Tottenham or LAFC, that drew N17's first big crowds and set the bar on the soccer map in Southern California.
“That pretty much kept our doors open,” Johnson said.
However, it was the Spurs who kept that momentum going.
“I don't have a big crowd for any other game,” Johnson said, sitting at a table on the patio outside the restaurant, dressed in a worn gray Spurs jersey and shorts despite the late September cold. “When Tottenham play, they come.”
Johnson said he and his wife have invested about half a million dollars in N17 and have made a profit every month since they opened. But it hasn't been easy.
“This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life,” said Johnson, who estimates he works 100 hours a week, mainly for one reason: “So we can watch the game and other people can have a place to come watch it.” . “
“It was just a passion,” he added. “It's just the love of football, football.”
