How Fallow duo Jack and Will are ‘pushing the boundaries’ with Roe

By their own admission, opening three restaurants and becoming social media stars was not part of any “grand master plan” for Jack Croft and Will Murray.

Yet that is exactly what has transpired for the chefs-turned-entrepreneurs, who are now almost a year in to their most ambitious project yet, the three-storey, 500-cover Roe in Canary Wharf.

MICHELIN-STARRED BEGINNINGS

Jack and Will met while working at the two-Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, where they struck up a friendship and have since begun creating an empire.

They entered a cookery competition and completed successful pop-ups, before opting to open their debut restaurant Fallow in a permanent site in St James’s.

Chicken-focused Fowl followed, before last year the emergence of Roe.

Along the way, they have garnered more than 1.5million online followers, across YouTube and Instagram alone.

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Reflecting on their journey, which led to the opening of Roe in 2024, Jack explained: “It was never a grand master plan, to set up a restaurant.

“We were just working together as chefs. We would go out for beers after service, we’d go and play pool and would just get talking.”

Will said: “Fundamentally we work as hard as each other, which is the most important thing. We have the same shared passion, ideals and drive.

“That’s held us together and we have different skillsets that complement each other.”

Jack continued: “Roe was an interesting one. It all evolved from Fallow. We started Fallow as a pop-up, then moved to a permanent location, in September 2022.

“When we moved to that current location in Haymarket we were like ‘this is us, done, for the next 15 years’. After about six months, we just seemed to fill that space quite quickly.

“Us both being head chefs, cooking there five or six days a week, we quickly realised there was room to grow as a business. We also had chefs beneath us who wanted to step up and the same in front of house.

“Roe is huge. It’s more than we could ever need, really. But it was the potential that we saw in the site. The fact that it was a complete shell and the fact we could do whatever we wanted, design whatever kitchen we wanted, do whatever we wanted with the menu and create our own new concept.

“Through the scale of the site, we genuinely thought it was an opportunity for us to become more sustainable, develop our product, have better buying power. Now we can start buying in whole cows and really affecting change within the food chain.

“With the growing wall, we have the largest indoor aeroponic system in Europe. We never would’ve been able to do that in a 30-cover restaurant in Soho.

“Here we can push the boundaries of what is perceived as normal within restaurants.”

Will added: “By the time we’d opened Fallow in St James’s, we had a retail range, we’d launched a cooking school, we’d done events and also social media. When we were in lockdown, the most important thing was we had to find a way to shout about all the important things we were doing.

“We started from nothing, selling burgers and gin and tonics to builders. As we grow as a business, that’s what we try to hold on to the most. People like to see that entrepreneurial spirit.

“The reason we took Roe was firstly because of the site.

“I’d never even been to Canary Wharf before I came to view the restaurant. It’s almost what I imagine Singapore to be like. When you see this building, it was like ‘wow, this is a blank canvas’. It’s a stunning location.

“It was nerve-racking taking it on, but it was exciting.”

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SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS

Sustainability and accessibility are at the heart of the ideas from Jack and Will, alongside business partner James Robson.

Fallow last year became B Corp certified, while the scale of the site at Roe allows Jack and Will to expand their ideas further.

Discussing the offering at Roe, Will said: “It’s accessible luxury. There’s a different appetite over here generally. You get business crowd, but you also get a lot of residential and people who come in on the weekends, who want something slightly more refined.

“We both wanted to do some sort of Turkish theme, because that’s the type of restaurants we like to eat in. We’ve got flatbreads and skewers, but that gives you a great blank canvas to be seasonal.”

Other favourites on the menu at Roe include the blooming onion and mixed grill, with a focus on larger, sharing plates. This suits the spacious nature of the restaurant, with a terrace available to sit out with evening drinks.

KINGS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

The social media success plays a large part in what has driven business for Jack, Will and James.

This became ramped up after what Will described as a “lightbulb moment”.

“We started out posting no more than any other restaurant,” he explained.

“Then we did one croissant photo which filled the bookings for three months. That was a lightbulb moment. That’s where I saw the true potential of the scale of it.

“People say ‘your social media is amazing’. All we do on social media is put up dishes we’ve created in the restaurants.

“People ask, how can I get my social media better? I think you’re probably asking the wrong question. You need to have empowered your teams, you need them to be happy in the workplace, to be happy to be on camera and you need to be creating new dishes and new content. You have to keep being creative, which feeds the socials, feeds the restaurants and feeds the customers.

“I fundamentally believe that because of social media, people are better chefs than they were five years ago.

“But you can’t build a restaurant group on socials. It comes from regular customers and knowing a massive network of awesome guests who want to come in and experience new things.”

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'WE NEED TO KEEP ROE FULL'

Despite the continued growth and success of the restaurant group, Jack and Will admit there have been times where they have questioned their approach.

“When we opened our first restaurant, Fallow, I was the most confident. That was naivety,” said Jack.

“When it got close to opening Roe, that was when it was like, what are we actually doing? A huge bank loan, no investors, training 100 staff. At that point it got really scary.

“The most worrying part is probably now, these last six months. Roe is a big restaurant. It’s very simple, we have so many staff, rates and bills to pay for this site, we can’t just have a quiet month.

“At Fallow, we could. People’s jobs, my house and our families are on the line here if this goes under. The ideas now need to work, because we need to keep the restaurant full.”

Will added: “I think as soon as you’re confident you’re doing the right thing, you’re doing something wrong. We have a tremendous amount of self-doubt all the time and that’s what drives us, keeps us strong and keeps us focused.”

'TRICKY' TIME AHEAD

Despite now having to split their time across three restaurants, Jack and Will remain committed to being regularly being part of the kitchen services.

And they currently have no plans for further expansion.

Will said: “We’re very thankful and grateful for what we’ve built. We’ve come out of a period of rapid growth and I do feel like the next period is going to be pretty tricky for a lot of landlord relationships in the city.

“I’ve got no plans right now to open another restaurant. Roe is fantastic and deserves all the attention it gets.

“We’ve got three very successful restaurants and we’re happy with how they’re working at the moment. Now it’s just making them as good as they can possibly be.”