First look inside St John at Fortnum & Mason, bringing nose-to-tail to Piccadilly

You might virtually hear the cries of dismay when it was introduced that St John restaurant in London’s Smithfield, a Wallpaper* favorite and helmed by proprietor and former visitor editor Fergus Henderson, is closing for a well-deserved refit. Henderson, after all, is the English chef whose ‘nose-to-tail’ consuming philosophy made cooks and diners in every single place realise that each a part of an animal is equally worthy of respect. 

The cries, although, have now been changed with sighs of aid as Henderson has stated that, within the meantime, the unique London restaurant’s tables, chairs, tablecloths, et al can be relocating as a short lived pop-up to the legendary Fortnum & Mason division retailer on Piccadilly for 3 weeks, starting 6 February 2024. Die-hard followers may select to frequent the restaurant’s different metropolis outposts: Bread & Wine in Spitalfields, and St John Marylebone.

Inside St John at Fortnum & Mason: a ‘better of British’ pairing

Wallpaper* entertaining director Melina Keays admits to being initially perplexed on the sudden pairing of St John, ‘so pared again’ and Fortnum’s, ‘adored for its Victorian opulence’. Nevertheless, she says, ‘I realised that the thought of putting one native icon inside one other is so totally completely different in temper, it is thrilling, and such a London approach of doing issues. It’s additionally a wedding of the perfect of British – great meat, natural cheese, freshly baked bread, pies and Eccles desserts, chutneys, preserves – each St John and Fortnum & Mason supply the stalwarts of Victorian delicacies.’

Henderson and St John co-founder Trevor Gulliver advised us forward of the pop-up’s opening, ‘We got carte blanche with the house – and we’re busy blanche-ifying.’ And so Fortnum’s ground-floor restaurant has been painted chilly white and fitted with a white-and-steel-clad bar, replicating the unique restaurant, a former smokehouse inside spitting distance of the capital’s Smithfield meat market.

Added Gulliver, ‘This was to be no “pop up” however the true factor, group, furnishings, the brine bucket, wines, rhythms, rigour, us!’ He continued, ‘Each one in all our Smithfield cooks is within the kitchen, each one in all our front-of-house beacons of information is on the door and on the ground. Briefly – you can be in St John.’

The St John at Fortnum’s menu boasts lots of Henderson’s most well-known dishes, together with roasted bone marrow and elegant Welsh rarebit. He’s additionally profiting from the change in locale to be impressed to create new soon-to-be classics.