Going Native in Mayfair
LONDON — For Ivan Tisdall-Downes and Imogen Davis, food can be glorious even when its origins are humble — a seabed on the English coast, a forest floor or a city garden.
The founders of Native, the new restaurant at Browns Brook Street in Mayfair, see the earth as a treasure chest, picking and culling and foraging to create the thought-provoking meals they’re serving at Browns.
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“We’ll forage at any opportunity,” said Davis, adding that they’ll also nudge customers aside and pick wild garlic from the Browns courtyard, right in the middle of service. Tisdall-Downes forages in London, while Davis lives near the sea in Essex, and gathers seaweed and sea vegetables before she heads into work. Teas are made from foraged leaves.
Nothing is wasted, either, with the chefs spinning the leftover skins from their potato risotto into fermented potato waffles with a mushroom parfait, or plying the iodine and vitamin B-packed seaweed that Davis picks into stocks, dashis and the restaurant’s seaweed martini.
Davis said they let the land and the animal guide the menu, with every last bit used. People eating the same mutton dish at Native might each be tasting a different cut of meat, depending on what’s available in the kitchen.
Native’s menu is filled with food from small, local British suppliers. The risotto is made from diced potato rather than rice (which isn’t local to the U.K.) and a Lincolnshire poacher cheese. The May menu also offers wild nettle and asparagus tart and wild turbot with a miso fish sauce.
She said the aim has always been to make “wonderful food” that people want to eat, and that’s also sustainable and kind to the environment. There is no “concept,” she added, and most plates are “meant for a sharing feast.”
Davis and Tisdall-Downes started out at food stalls in London and quickly became known for their beetroot sauces and wood pigeon kebab, another dish that Davis said is “super-sustainable.” They later had restaurants in London’s Borough Market and in Covent Garden before opening at Browns.
The restaurant is located inside the store and its interior nods to ancient Rome, with mosaics on the floor and a large baptismal-like font in the corner.
It serves all day, and has a wine of the week, chosen by Tisdall-Downes Davis. Guests can also dine in the courtyard (where the wild garlic and other greens grow), with a cherry tree and emerald-colored tables.
Holli Rogers, chair of Browns and its former chief executive officer, had wanted a restaurant in the new store and picked Native for its responsible approach to food, its laid-back feel and stylish dishes. Rogers pointed out that “there are no table linens or those sorts of things — it’s more in line with who the Browns customer is.”
Rogers said she’s hoping the restaurant will become a hangout for the fashion crowd in Mayfair.
Davis said the seaweed martini, made with Mermaid Gin and sea greens, including samphire, has so far been a big hit, with guests ordering one as a cocktail, and then downing more with dinner — and getting their vitamins with every drop.
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