Harbour House pub near Falmouth opens with sustainable mission

Jeffrey Robinson, one of the UK’s first chefs to have attained a green Michelin star, is heading up a new Cornish pub with food – Harbour House. Set on the waterfront in the historic village of Flushing, Harbour House heralds a core determination to create and achieve new levels of sustainability.

The village of Flushing is set on the Penryn River, directly across from Falmouth. The location offers the perfect home for a sourcing system where an all-day pub business can thrive but be underpinned with not only environmental but social accountability. This is a foundation Jeffrey Robinson believes is essential if you wish to market yourself as ‘sustainable’.

Working with owners Tamara Costin and William Speed, Jeffrey and his team have been ‘all hands on deck’ (Image: Harbour House)

Working with owners Tamara Costin and William Speed, who also own thriving restaurants in Devon, Jeffrey and his team have been ‘all hands on deck’ for the last six months. Together they have developed new building skills as they helped with the significant refurbishment of the historic freehouse.

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The team worked with Oscar Stockman of Stockman Joinery, a local boat builder/joiner to design and craft a bespoke bar, made from oak as well as eight hand-crafted outside tables where you can sit and watch the boats pass by.

The team has created a friendly, open kitchen with a charcoal grill made by Tom Bray from Country Fire Kitchen. All Harbour House cooking will be over coals from Tom Kemp of Working Woodlands Cornwall, the only eco-sustainable supplier in the entire country, who use local coppice sourced from surrounding woods. The kitchen also has a ‘chef’s table’ for two so diners can quite literally feel they are in the mix with the team of pub chefs.

Antique lighting has been supplied by local Penryn-based business Skinflint and lime plaster from Bodmin-based Cornish Lime- has been used on the walls. Furniture has been sourced from Kernow Furniture and David Lay in Penzance. The logo, a queen scallop design, has been created by Sarah Jane Humphrey, an award-winning botanical illustrator from Falmouth. Following the same local sourcing philosophy, work will soon begin on the four bedrooms above, expected to be completed in the new year.

Harbour House is located in Flushing (Image: Supplied)

For the past few years, ‘Cornish boy’ Jeffrey helmed the New Yard Restaurant, on the Lizard Peninsula in rural southwest Cornwall. It was here that he began his journey into not only honing his sustainability-driven dishes but also his deep core understanding of how the produce was grown, earning him one of the UK’s first Green Michelin stars.

Harbour House’s daily, and sometimes hourly, changing menus sport breakfast, lunch and dinner options with pub snacks and small plates available all day. The kitchen also holds an in-house bakery.

Harbour House is also open for drinkers and walk-ins all day. With taps set within the original exposed brick wall, Harbour House beers are from Penryn’s Verdant Brewery, St Ives Brewery, Treens Brewery, Padstow Brewing Company and Lacuna Brewer. Cornish-made gins are from Loveday based in Penryn.

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Jeffrey Robinson said: "We are delighted, and somewhat relieved, to finally throw open the doors of our new Cornish pub - Harbour House.

"Alongside the beers, spirits and wines myself and my committed team are bringing all of our previous restaurant learnings with us to this utterly idyllic, shoreline pub kitchen and setting.

"We’re using produce from the top of the hill in Flushing, seafood harvested right outside the front door and imports delivered by sail boat. By allowing forward-thinking farmers from Cornwall to dictate my menus, we are honouring how previous generations sourced and traded ingredients from this very location.

Harbour House is also open for drinkers and walk-ins all day. (Image: Supplied)

"Harbour House now offers a pub snacking or dining experience that is obviously my signature, but in an affordable way. We’re all about supporting the local community, local producers and a year-round passionate pub team who simply don’t want to be anywhere else.

"‘Sustainable’ is an umbrella term that perhaps isn’t policed as much as it should be. But we’re committed to ‘resetting the compass’ in the pubs with food trade, bringing the same high green Michelin-style standards to this new location, sharing what we know and develop with the industry for years to come."