A decade of beef, fire and patience.
The Foundry House opened in the autumn of 2014, in a former iron foundry off Marlowe Street. The bones of the building set the tone — exposed brick, an open kitchen, a single long bar — and the kitchen has not strayed far from its first principles since.
Restraint is the point.
A great steakhouse is a question of editing. We trade with a small handful of farms, a small handful of growers, and a kitchen team who would rather do four things superbly than fourteen things adequately.
The menu has barely grown since opening night. The cellar has — modestly — and the room has been quietly refined twice. Everything else is the same evening it always was.
A short list, kept short on purpose.
We work directly with three farms — two in Yorkshire, one in the Scottish Borders — all of them rearing native, slow-grown breeds on pasture. Our fish comes from Cornish day boats, and our vegetables from a single estate in Sussex.
- Tilbrook Farm, North YorkshireNative Galloway and Shorthorn, grass-finished.
- Ardgowan Estate, Scottish BordersHeritage Aberdeen Angus, slow-reared.
- Carey Brothers, CornwallDay-boat turbot, brill, monkfish.
- Wadhurst Farm, SussexEstate-grown vegetables, weekly delivery.
Twenty-eight days at minimum.
Every primal cut is hung on the bone in our glass-fronted ageing room. Salt, airflow and time do the work. The result is a deeper, nuttier flavour and a texture that softens without losing its bite.
Selection
Carcasses arrive twice weekly. Only those that meet our marbling and conformation standards make it to the ageing room.
Ageing
Cuts hang for a minimum of 28 days at 1°C and 80% humidity, with constant airflow. Some sit for 40, 60, even 90.
Trim & Cook
The crust is trimmed back, the cut is portioned by hand and finished over English oak, served simply with herb butter.
James Marlowe, Head Chef
A Yorkshireman by birth and a butcher by training, James spent eight years at Hawksmoor and three at St. John before opening The Foundry House in 2014. He still butchers most of the room's beef himself, most mornings, and writes the menu by hand each Monday.
"Good beef does not need much. Our job is to stay out of its way."
