Peripatetic zero-waste and foraging specialist Native, most recently based in Mayfair, is to take up permanent residence on the site of the former Pensons restaurant on the Netherwood Estate where Worcestershire meets Herefordshire.

Ivan Tisdall-Downes and Imogen Davis developed the Native concept via markets and pop-ups, and progressed through sites in Neal’s Yard and Borough Market in London, Osea Island in Essex, and back to fashionable Brown’s store in Mayfair.

They left Brown’s in December last year, having achieved the highest rating of 5/5 for food in the 2023 Harden’s guide, which hailed their “wonderful, innovative dishes that stick in the memory“.

Pensons was opened five years ago on Peta Darnley’s 1,200-acre estate, providing a “sublime setting” (Harden’s) for meals originally by head chef Lee Westcott and his successor Chris Simpson. It closed in December.

Scheduled to launch on Wednesday, 22 May, Native at Pensons will be a 32-cover restaurant with rooms, with a 14-seat private dining room on the upper level. There will be three menus, featuring plenty of produce grown or foraged on the estate – 4 courses at £65 per person, 7 courses for £105 per person, and a 3-course Sunday lunch at £45 per person. Dishes will include The Oak Pool (chalk stream trout, lapsang dashi, tempura, crayfish) and Herdwick lamb with Wye Valley asparagus and black garlic.

Native has backing from Hestia Hospitality, a new £50 million investment vehicle led by Andrew Fishwick and financed by a consortium of high-net-worth individuals including former Sainsbury’s boss Justin King.