Harwood Arms co-founder to open second hotel restaurant

Chef Mike Robinson says The Elder in Bath will have the same focus on game meats and carry the same ethos towards sustainable food management as his upcoming restaurant The Woodsman, which will open within the newly-restored Stratford-upon-Avon Hotel Indigo on 16 April.

Both sites will serve venison sourced from Robinson’s own business.

“It’s very exciting and pretty amazing,” says Robinson.

“I don’t think I’d have been able to do this in London, I just wouldn’t have had the space.”

Like The Woodsman, much of the cooking at The Elder will be done on a charcoal grill. It will also house an on-site butchery, allowing Robinson and his team, which includes former Cliveden house head chef Gavin Edney, to manage every stage of the meat’s journey from farm to fork.

Of his partnership with St James’s, Robinson says he has received nothing but support.

“They recognise that if you’re going to do a successful restaurant inside a hotel, it needs to be a separate entity. As such I’ve been given carte blanche over The Elder and The Woodsman, from the menu down to the décor.”

At present The Elder is due to open alongside the Hotel Indigo Bath later in the summer, however building work on the Grade I-listed hotel site has been halted for nearly six-weeks and it’s not clear when it will continue.

Robinson says he hopes to continue working with St James’s in the future, though no further plans have been confirmed.