{"id":34593,"date":"2026-10-01T12:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/34593\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:27:16","slug":"how-johnnie-crowe-built-restaurant-st-barts-around-british-sourcing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/34593\/","title":{"rendered":"How Johnnie Crowe Built Restaurant St. Barts Around British Sourcing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"chef\"Johnnie Crowe. Nathan Neeve<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a warm summer day in late July in London, and the bounty of the British Isles is on display at Restaurant St. Barts. A rich bite of raw Belted Galloway beef on toast; a pot of English peas on a Japanese-inspired chawanmushi custard; slices of St. Bride\u2019s duck served with a sunflower satay sauce and chunks of Cornish lobster tail laced with sansho pepper. The dishes showcase a broad range of culinary inspirations, but every ingredient on the menu comes from within the U.K.<\/p>\n

It was that local ethos that chef Johnnie Crowe wanted to cultivate when he, Luke Wasserman and Toby Neill opened Restaurant St. Barts in 2022. The trio already operated Nest, a small Hackney-based restaurant with a seasonal menu. But Crowe felt he could take the concept further in a larger, fine-dining space. They found an empty site in Clerkenwell overlooking St. Bartholomew the Great, London\u2019s oldest parish church.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The space is large and bright, but it also feels hidden away. \u201cIf you\u2019re coming here, it feels a little bit secret and special,\u201d Crowe tells Observer, sitting at Restaurant St. Barts. \u201cThis is a real passion project, and we want to make every little part of someone\u2019s evening as special as it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"restaurant\"restaurantRestaurant St. Barts opened in London in 2022. Steven Joyce<\/p>\n

When Nest opened at the end of 2017, Crowe had already begun immersing himself in the possibilities of local ingredients. He had previously worked at Michelin-starred pub the Harwood Arms and at Farringdon restaurant Anglo, both of which focused on British cuisine. But Nest was an opportunity to go further. Crowe soon found himself obsessed with finding local suppliers who specialized in different types of meat, rather than relying on a single butcher for lamb, beef, duck or whatever was currently on the menu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat took me down the road of meeting these suppliers who are really focused on what their product is,\u201d he says. \u201cAfter we found all these amazing meat suppliers, I moved on to fish, and then it was vegetables, and then it was flowers, and then beans and grains. I really went down the rabbit hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

After applying those learnings to Nest, which relaunched earlier this year as Tavern in Shoreditch, Crowe went full steam ahead into Restaurant St. Barts. In the early months, he estimates that they were only able to source about 95 percent of their ingredients from the U.K. \u201cThere were a few stumbling blocks to get through,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I felt like the producer side of things, and those connections, were what I was most passionate about. So why not build a restaurant around that as a concept?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Langoustine. Yuhui Liu Eli<\/p>\n

The limitation on provenance doesn\u2019t impact Crowe\u2019s ability to create complex, interesting dishes. If anything, it pushes him to be more creative. Instead of relying on a beloved international ingredient, Crowe looks for something just as good\u2014if not better\u2014within the U.K. \u201cI don\u2019t ever feel like we\u2019re missing out,\u201d he says. \u201cI never look at another restaurant and go, \u2018Oh, I wish we could have that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Crowe wants to highlight what can be grown or cultivated in his home country, whether it\u2019s quinoa, lemons or watermelons, which he came in this week. \u201cWe have such passionate people doing these things in the U.K.,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re nuts about it. Our Cornish lemon supplier\u2014they love what they do. This restaurant is about us telling the guests, \u2018Look how great all this stuff is and how passionate the people are who do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowe estimates that Restaurant St. Barts uses more than 40 different suppliers across the U.K. Instead of a single supplier for all meat, Crowe looks for the best person for the specific type of meat, like duck, rather than a farm that happens to sell it. He\u2019s tried many different duck suppliers since he launched Nest. Restaurant St. Barts uses St. Bride\u2019s Poultry in Scotland, a family-run farm.<\/p>\n

\"chef\"chefCrowe sources ducks from St. Bride\u2019s Poultry. Yuhui Liu<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do that extra bit of legwork, it gives it a \u2018wow\u2019 sense,\u201d he says. \u201cI talk to St. Bride\u2019s about three months before I want to take something. And that\u2019s the process with most of the things that come into the restaurant. It\u2019s a lot of planning ahead.\u201d He is always looking for new ones, too. \u201cIt\u2019s a constant journey,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we\u2019re always open to finding someone doing something interesting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of the ingredients available locally have surprised Crowe, like sansho pepper, which is part of the lobster dish. It\u2019s grown at a farm in Brighton, and Crowe likes it so much that he uses the lobster in two dishes: one with Chinese-inspired egg noodles made with coral roe and one with Cornish lobster tail. The chef wanted to showcase the different textures available in a single lobster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Lobster, cuttlefish and British seed bun. Nathan Neeve<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sansho pepper stands up really well to the lobster,\u201d Crowe says. \u201cLobster is quite rich, so you\u2019ve got to have something really cleansing. There\u2019s a slight numbing quality you get from sansho pepper. You\u2019re left with a clean palate at the end of it, which is key when you\u2019re doing a tasting menu. With each dish, you\u2019ve got to keep people interested and wanting more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tasting menu is the only option at Restaurant St. Barts. There are two dinner menus: a long signature option (\u00a3170) and a shorter midweek option (\u00a3130), as well as a signature lunch menu (\u00a3130), a set lunch (\u00a380) and a more concise business lunch (\u00a360). The dishes rotate frequently based on what is currently in season. Crowe often swaps in new dishes and snacks, although the black koji and barley dessert rarely leaves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The black koji and barley dessert is almost always on the menu. Neeve Photography<\/p>\n

The dessert came about when the restaurant\u2019s former head chef, Brendan Appleby, began experimenting with fermentation to create a chocolate flavor without needing imported chocolate. \u201cHe made that for me, and I thought, \u2018I can turn this into something,\u2019\u201d Crowe says of the incredibly rich dish. \u201cIt was a challenge because it isn\u2019t chocolate, and it doesn\u2019t behave like chocolate. It\u2019s been on the menu for about three years, and it\u2019s changed a lot. It was quite simple to start with, but now we\u2019ve added five different textures with the koji.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowe, who grew up in Hammersmith and later resided in Somerset, has always been interested in how ingredients can be sustainably grown and sourced. His earliest cooking job was at Rwakobo Rock, a safari camp in Uganda\u2019s Lake Mburo National Park, at age 19. The experience helped him learn to think on his feet in the kitchen, although at the time, he wasn\u2019t sure whether he wanted to be a chef or a butcher. He did an apprenticeship at a butcher in London and worked in pubs for several years. By 24, he was running a pub.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018This is not the ceiling for me,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI enjoyed parts of it. But I didn\u2019t want that to be it for my career. So I went to The Harwood Arms, which was Michelin-starred, and that was amazing. But towards the end of being there, I was curious about fine-dining tasting menus. I was there for over a year, which isn\u2019t very long. I should have stayed another seven or eight months, but I was pretty impatient. I wanted to find my own style.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crowe credits Alex Harper, the former head chef at the Harwood Arms, with teaching him how to run a kitchen. At Nest, Crowe was the only person cooking\u2014a situation that forced him to be resourceful and efficient. He channeled those formative experiences into Restaurant St. Barts, which proved to be a challenging undertaking in its early months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked every shift,\u201d Crowe says. \u201cIt was nightmare stuff. Almost all of the staff left within seven or eight months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite that, Restaurant St. Barts earned a Michelin star within six months of opening. Looking back, Crowe says it was validating, but also too much, too soon. The award came so quickly, he wasn\u2019t sure the restaurant could handle the accompanying attention. \u201cIn all honesty, I think we weren\u2019t ready for it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was a relief to see the recognition. And it\u2019s helped us to get a better caliber of staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Roast Norfolk chicken. Nathan Neeve<\/p>\n

The restaurant also received a Michelin green star, awarded for sustainable practices, in February 2024. The green star is now being phased out and will be retired by the end of the year, but Crowe doesn\u2019t think that will have a big impact on the perception or success of his restaurant. He will continue to use hyper-local ingredients and aim to be as low-waste as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to get that as an award, but for me, [sustainability] has never been about selling it to people,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been more about, \u2018Let\u2019s try and get better at it every day.\u2019 And the people who work here are passionate about that as well. So it\u2019s important to the team, and it\u2019s important to the restaurant as a whole. Right now, we\u2019re not the most sustainable restaurant in the U.K., but we\u2019re getting closer every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"dining\"diningThe interior design also keeps sustainability in mind; it\u2019s all locally sourced. Nathan Neeve<\/p>\n

The furniture and the decor at Restaurant St. Barts are locally sourced. The wooden tables in the lounge, where guests have drinks and snacks before the meal, were crafted by Wasserman\u2019s stepfather. For a while, Wasserman was making much of the crockery himself. More recently, the team has enlisted several British potters, including Steve Brown, to create custom pieces. \u201cI like the eclectic mix of different things in here,\u201d Crowe says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s great to support people making things in the U.K.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few items, like coffee and wine, still come from outside the country. Coffee isn\u2019t grown in the U.K., and Crowe doesn\u2019t want to limit a guest\u2019s experience with a small wine selection. But the spirits in the cocktails are made in the U.K., and the team creates the nonalcoholic drinks in-house. Dining at Restaurant St. Barts reveals just how much is actually available within the U.K., from yuzu to ginger to melons. Crowe\u2019s flavors come from all over the world, but because he creates them using only local products, they are even more exciting to taste.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s taken some time to develop, the chef believes the restaurant is now the best expression of itself. Still, though, he wants to continue showcasing the best British ingredients. \u201cAs people stay longer as well and grow with the restaurant, you\u2019re able to really push harder,\u201d Crowe says. \u201cI think that\u2019s what\u2019s happening now. It\u2019s a really good moment for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"At<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johnnie Crowe. Nathan Neeve It\u2019s a warm summer day in late July in London, and the bounty of the British Isles is on display at Restaurant St. Barts. A rich bite of raw Belted Galloway beef on toast; a pot of English peas on a Japanese-inspired chawanmushi custard; slices of St. Bride\u2019s duck served with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28316,28317,28315,13,29,27,5960,26,16,28312,18,17,645,28313,28318,19,7,28319,8,22457,28320,28321,28322,28323,28314,28311,28],"class_list":["post-34593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-restaurants","tag-alex-harper","tag-anglo","tag-brendan-appleby","tag-chefs","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-features","tag-international","tag-interviews","tag-johnnie-crowe","tag-lifestyle","tag-lifestyle-interviews","tag-london","tag-luke-wasserman","tag-nest","tag-nightlife-dining","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurant-st-barts","tag-restaurants","tag-restaurants-in-london","tag-rwakobo-rock","tag-steve-brown","tag-tavern","tag-the-harwood-arms","tag-toby-neill","tag-travel-to-london","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117365649284633905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}