Co-founder James Robson says Fallow is “going from strength to strength” as his London restaurant announced it is now B Corp certified.
Fallow’s B Corp process began around two years ago, in which time James and chef duo Jack Croft and William Murray have also launched two new ventures in Roe and FOWL.
Situated in St James’s Market since November 2021, having initially started as a pop-up the previous year, Fallow champions sustainability, using often discarded British ingredients with a root-to-stem and nose-to-tail approach.
How does the B Corp certification process work?
Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified by B Lab Europe who meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. There are now more than 2,000 in the UK, across various industries.
It is a rigorous process, evaluating a company’s practices and outputs across five categories – governance, workers, customers, environment and community.
Speaking to The Staff Canteen about the B Corp process, James said: “I was a little bit skeptical at the beginning, because you see all the big firms with it, rather than the smaller independents.
“But we learnt a lot, there’s no doubt about it. It’s been incredibly intensive. It was a real deep dive into all of our practices.
“One of the things that sticks in my mind is we do a lot on the diversity side, working with a lot of different associations and partners. Whether this is people coming out of jail, food banks or local authorities.
“They literally held us to account on the postcode of the people. They asked how many we were employing from the closest boroughs that have got underprivileged people. Something like that I’d never thought about before.”
He added: “It was a little challenging from an independent perspective. But I would recommend that any company did it (B Corp process). I really would, because it focuses in your thinking.”
However, something which has frustrated James is that neither Roe nor FOWL are B Corp certified.
He explained: “We are an independent chain and just because we call our other restaurants different names and they’re slightly different concepts, apparently I can’t call them B Corp.
“It’s okay if I’m a bank or skincare brand or steak chain, I’m allowed to open up as many as I want and call them B Corp. But because we’re a genuine independent, that’s got the same ethos across our group as we expand, apparently I can’t call them B Corp.
“It was a kick in the teeth they didn’t grant it to our other restaurants.”
Discussing sustainability focus, James explained: “We’ve done this from day one. What it does mean is you need a heavier staff load to process whole animals.
“To put it in perspective, we’ve got two butchers in-house. Veg, we don’t waste any of it. For us, that’s just been the ethos since day one. We’re not buying in 50 rib-eyes, we’re buying in three pigs, two venison and half a Dexter.
“We make all our own burgers. We grow mushrooms on site at Fallow and make all our own mushroom burgers. We grow all kinds of herbs and vegetables at Roe. We buy the best, most high-welfare chickens we can for FOWL, and then deep fry them! It’s just an ethos.”
Business is booming
With Roe recently added to the Michelin Guide, Fallow becoming B Corp certified and FOWL continuing to grow, it is an exciting time for James, Jack, William and the rest of the team.
Reflecting on the recent success of the business, James said: “It’s going from strength to strength. I think we’re probably at peak Fallow now I would suggest, we’re very busy.
“I’d like to think we’re going to open up a standalone FOWL in the next couple of years.
“Roe, we’ve had a fantastic launch, but we’ve got to bed it in. It took us five years to get Fallow where it is. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
He added: “We’ve had a good run. We’ve just been listed in Michelin for Roe, we’ve just announced B Corp for Fallow. All these things get into the psyche of the customer and hopefully they’ll dine with people like us that have got these credentials.
“The B Corp is a very nice stamp to receive. We should be B Corp, because we set the company up with that DNA.
“It’s just those little touches of recognition the team can be really proud of and hopefully it creates new customer respect.”
A big part of the success has come via Fallow’s digital growth, particularly on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, some videos achieving more than one million views.
James explained: “People understand you’ve got your front of house and back of house. Then other people might understand you’ve got a sommelier team, an office team. We treat digital like that.
“We have a marketing manager, a full-time producer, editor, videographer. I think there’s a slight misconception we get lucky on digital, but we don’t. We work on it and a whole team works on it in-house.
“It feeds an energy into the restaurant and it’s an integral part of our success.”
