Victor Garvey sets up £130,000 crowdfund for new London restaurant

Chef Victor Garvey has launched a crowdfunding campaign to open a new restaurant in London’s Marylebone, one month after closing his acclaimed Victor Garvey at the Midland Grand restaurant.

 

He has acquired a property on Great Portland Street which he hopes to turn into Materia Prima.

 

The building features a 24-seat dining room beneath antique skylights, a private dining space with its own outdoor area and a cocktail bar.

 

Half the capital to build the restaurant is coming from Garvey’s own Rock On Hospitality company, but he hopes to raise the remaining £130,000 via crowdfunding to build and fit the kitchen and the rest of the site, source quality ingredients and provide operating capital for the venue’s first few months.

 

For investing upwards of £68, contributors will receive rewards such as a dinner at Garvey’s Michelin-starred Sola in London. Those pledging the maximum £8,000 will be given a full takeover of the forthcoming Materia Prima for a night.

 

At the time of writing, 11 backers have raised £6,050 collectively, and the project will only be funded if it reaches its goal by Saturday, 27 September 2025 at 11am BST.

 

Garvey wrote on the crowdfunding page: “After two decades cooking in some of the world’s most acclaimed kitchens – from El Bulli to then founding Michelin-starred Sola – I’m building something truly new in London.

 

“Materia Prima is a restaurant devoted to one simple, radical idea: the best possible ingredients, served at their best.

 

“That’s it. No gimmicks. No dogma. No boundaries. Just a relentless pursuit of the top of the top – whether that’s spiny lobster from Brittany, uni from the Faroe Islands, or the finest vegetables grown anywhere on Earth.”

 

On 15 July the Victor Garvey at the Midland Grand restaurant within the St Pancras London hotel closed after roughly five months of trading.

 

The chef launched the restaurant in late February with the hotel’s owner Harry Handelsman.

 

When the restaurant opened, it showcased Garvey’s interpretation of classical French cuisine through dishes such as lobster tempered in butter and served out of the shell with its own roe and spiced carrot, as well as red tuna served with white peach, roasted leek and a green almond sorbet.

 

Garvey had previously told The Caterer: “It’s an honour [to take on this space]. A chef only gets an opportunity like this, where they are offered a big dining room, once or twice in their life. It happened to Joël Robuchon, to Alain Ducasse, all the big guys, and I’m very excited.”