“I hope people know how much respect these places deserve…” Will Warr and Jesse Burgess, founders of Topjaw

It takes ten years to become an overnight success, they say. At the eight year mark, Topjaw’s Jesse Burgess and Will Warr very nearly tapped out. The pair had been making longish-form food-adjacent YouTube videos since 2015 — things like a 21-minute, three part series on the best burger in London. (“We haven’t exactly moved on,” laughs Will now.) It was going okay. It was going fine. It was even going quite well — which is a terrible way for anything to be going whatsoever.

“And then there came a moment when it was like, right: this has been a side project for so long,” says Jesse now. “Are we going to pack it in because it takes up a lot of time and because Will is starting a family? Or: are we going to carry it on — at which point we have to put our all into it. It was one or the other.” This crossroads was reached at the end of 2022 — a time when the almighty algorithm favoured shortform, punchy content over longer-running, landscape films. Deciding to go all in, and now in search of a canny format, the pair quickly hit on a nifty, oven-ready idea that combined a ‘man on the street’ appeal with London’s most beloved hobby: eating out. Or, more specifically: eating out and then telling everyone about it.

Will wears: Tod’s jacket, £795; jeans, £615; loafers, £595, tods.com; Paul Smith jumper, £250, paulsmith.com; Chopard LUC Qualité Fleurier watch, £18,300, chopard.com

Jesse wears: Paul Smith jacket, £1,050; trousers, £375; loafers, £335, paulsmith.com; Henley top, Jesse’s own

“It was just so transformational,” says Jesse now of Topjaw’s ‘Best of London’ series. “I think we doubled our following in the first month. The whole series really hit on something. And that's the nice thing about social media — it doesn't really lie. If you've got a good format, it'll immediately work.”

It has been working ever since. In early 2024, when the pair had a mere 450,000 followers on Instagram (they have since doubled it,) I described the magic formula thus: “A famous chef or foodie person. An exterior shot in delicious lighting. A young man in Byronic ringlets. Mischievous eyes down the barrel of the lens. A crash zoom and a crop. And then straight into it, no mucking about, don’t hold the dopamine. Best restaurant in London? Best bar or pub? Best coffee spot? Best burger? Best roast? Etc etc, on and on, in a torrent of A-grade recommendations and sumptuous name drops.” That description still stands — except now it’s all got bigger, and better, and funnier, actually. Heftier names, too. Florence Pugh came on recently. Idris Elba. Loyle Carner. Steve Coogan. Gordon Ramsay, who had a go at Jesse’s hair. But the proper industry heroes remain, as well — like Elliot Hashtroudi of Camille in Borough Market, and Dom Fernando of Paradise in Soho.

"We doubled our following in the first month..."

What does this format so cannily tap into? On one level, it is a sort of snack-sized shortcut to good taste; a mainline of social capital; a TikTok version of the old dinner party shrug: “oh, haven’t you been to X yet?”. On another, it acts as a revealing lens on the notable person who is being interviewed; a different, more penetrating angle into them, beyond “so tell us about the new movie.” (Chicken Shop Date and Hot Ones et al do the same thing, of course, only with significantly more poultry.) You can tell a lot about a person by the restaurants they love. And even more, perhaps, by the restaurants they think they should love. (What is it about the River Café that demands such A-list fealty?) “Your choices in those departments, they're almost like a set of tattoos,” says Jesse. “It's almost a part of your identity.”

The idea of London having a singular “Best Restaurant” is also a happy absurdity. “We thought about saying ‘what’s your favourite restaurant’”, says Jesse. “But actually, ‘best’ is even better. It’s a bit more obnoxious, in a way.”

Will wears: Sunspel jacket, £465, sunspel.com; Polo Ralph Lauren jumper, £215, ralphlauren.com; FENDI trousers, £870, fendi.com; TOD’S loafers, £595, tods.com

Jesse wears: Polo Ralph Lauren jacket, £1,195; jeans, £145, both ralphlauren.com; Paul smith loafers, £335, paulsmith.com

“And it encourages more debate in the comments,” says Will. “People want to share it with their mates, or they want to save it for a rainy day, or they want to argue with it, throw some shade in the comments. It has a little bit of everything that’s required for a video to boot off.”

Positive endorsements on the platform can have a transformative effect for the restaurants named. As well as the ‘Best of London’ series, Jesse and Will do in-depth video reviews of new or established spots. “Dom Hamdy opened a restaurant called Canal in Westbourne Park,” says Jesse. “It was a brand new building. It had never been a restaurant. There's no footfall. There's really nothing around there. He calls it the Graffiti Riviera. The only thing that seems to stick it out up there is the Costa Coffee. But we went and did a video about Canal and put it out, and Dom said that the day the restaurant opened, they got something like 800 bookings overnight.”

“Really there is nothing more rewarding to us than hearing that,” says Will.

It’s important to distinguish this type of considered endorsement (even though it comes in a viral-friendly format) from mere gimmicky hype. (Also important to say that Will and Jesse have never taken money from any restaurants or hospitality groups — though quite a few have tried — and maintain that they never will.) It’s hardly original to note that we live in an age of performative consumption, where a slice of — and I am making this up, but it probably exists — bubble tea cacio e pepe deep-dish pizza can go viral from a handful of posts, and quickly garner three hour queues of thousands of people who will also all post about it, to be seen by thousands and thousands more people who will also post about the queue to post about the pizza, until people are posting about posting about posting a slice of pizza, and on and on, in a maddening hall of late-capitalist mirrors. To mis-quote Don Delillo in White Noise: “No-one sees the pizza. They are taking pictures of taking pictures.”

“All I can say is, if you are looking for that type of thing, then you know you won't find it on Topjaw,” says Jesse. “There's no point following us for that sort of stuff.”

“Your choice of restaurants is almost like a set of tattoos..."

Ten years of covering restaurants has furnished the pair with a deep and natural knowledge of the hospitality scene — not simply the places to go, but the people behind the places, and the people behind the people, too. “I'm so fascinated by the people that work in this industry,” says Jesse. “Because everything is sort of telling you that it's not a particularly great idea. We all know that chefs and people who work in hospitality are working when the rest of society is socializing. So that is already a massive commitment and sacrifice. But then it's also never been harder. Everything just moves against you — even with things like the National Insurance hikes. It's just such a daily battle for them. So I really just hope that people know how difficult it is and how much respect should be given to these places.”

Knowing everything they know, would they ever be tempted to pivot into the industry themselves? “I love giving people advice based on our experiences,” says Jesse. “But I'm not giving anybody advice based on my knowledge of hospitality!” he laughs. “It would be totally deluded. We've got no idea what it takes. And I'm a terrible cook.”

Jesse wears: Fendi coat, £3,200; shirt, £1,250, fendi.com; Polo Ralph Lauren jeans, £145, ralphlauren.com

Will wears: Gieves & Hawkes jumper, £395, gievesandhawkes.com; Fendi trousers, £870, fendi.com; Tod’s loafers, £595, tods.com;

“We've filmed in over 2000 restaurants,” says Will. “And we can see how hard it is. So it’s more about how we can support from the outside.”

Elsewhere, the pair are just about to release a beer with 40 Foot Brewery in Dalston, the proceeds of which will go to Street Smart, the homelessness charity with deep roots in the hospitality industry. The beer’s name, rather pleasingly, is ‘Overnight Success.’

On that note: where do they think they’ll be in another ten years? “We’re very lucky,” says Will. “We have great managers and we have these annual strategy meetings. They chat about what we could do on TV, or what we could do in publishing. All these possible routes. And we go: we just really, really love making the social content that we're making. I think there's a lot more that we can do in terms of the development of that and the different series ideas. So I think the idea right now of us doing something for broadcast probably isn't quite right. I think we both love the creative freedom that we have. You come up with an idea on Monday, you can shoot it on Tuesday, and it can be live on Wednesday evening. And we just have so much fun doing it.”

“It's funny, because I think sometimes people see us now and go, ‘cool, alright. You've done that. So what else?’” Jesse laughs. “It’s like: no, no, no, no, no. We have so much still to do. There are so many ideas,” he says.

"We have so much still to do..."

“What's interesting to us is the stories behind these places — delving even more into that,” Jesse says. He talks of the idea of “mini-documentaries” about London institutions (i.e Bar Italia, where we shot them for this story) and the people behind these places. But also of bucking the algorithmic arms race for shorter, snappier, more dopamine-drenched content and producing things that are considered and smart and deeply researched instead — and yet still widely consumed and shared. “It's something we haven't cracked yet,” says Jesse. “We haven't worked out how to do that. But that's what we want to do.”

We end on the ingeniously silly question that has helped get them this far, and the question that they are asked, possibly, more than any other. I like to think I am asking it ironically, somehow. But actually, I realise in realtime, I do really want to know the answer. Their answer, yes. But also the answer. Can’t we just settle this once and for all? What, when all is said and done, is the best restaurant in London?

“It changes all the time,” Jesse says. “We filmed in Ibai the other day,” says Will. “Which I was a serious fan of.” “Another one that I really like is Camille,” says Jesse. “It's the one restaurant at the moment that I'm thinking about a lot. I just really want to go back. Oh, and Brigadiers,” he says. “It’s just hard to feel unhappy there. And it is so, so good.” Tomorrow, of course, the names will probably be different. In another ten years, they will surely be unrecognisable. What will hospitality in London look like then? Will and Jesse, who have spent so long asking the questions, will be uniquely placed to provide the answers.

Subscribe to Gentleman's Journal now to receive this issue to your door.

Read next: Gstaad Guy on wealth, self-expression, and gentleness.