The whitewash and wood of St John Smithfields remains one of London's most iconic and essential restaurant visits, even some 30 years after Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver clubbed together to create their temple to traditional British cuisine. Despite that, there have only been a few attempts to spread the St John gospel via other locations - St John Maltby Street was only open for three years, and the ill-fated St John Los Angeles was sunk by the COVID pandemic and never managed to open. Only St John Bread and Wine in Spitalfield's remains, save a few St John Bakery locations.
That is, of course, unless you make your way to Marylebone, where Henderson and Gulliver are taking a few pointers from Paris and Tuscany to make St John Marylebone into an all-day wine bar and dining room. Henderson's long-time right-hand-man and St John chef-director Jonathan Woolway oversees the menu, so you can expect typically rustic, pared-back British fare, albeit dishes that are driven and informed by St John's excellent wine list. Breakfast doughnuts and other bakery items come from the excellent St John Bakery in Bermondsey, naturally. The lunch and dinner offering follows the example shown by St John Smithfield with a daily-changing blackboard of specials.
With wine bars becoming ever more popular in London, St John's ace in the hole is that the group has a thriving wine business of its own already set up. St John has its own vineyard in Minervois, and Gulliver and Henderson have cultivated strong relationships with winemakers all over France, many of whom make wines for the St John label. Henderson is also famously fond of fortified wines and liqueurs, so expect no shortage of these on the drinks menu too.