Seattle Chef Drags U.S. Pot Pies While Winning English Pub Glory

KEY POINTS

•Kevin Smith, a Seattle chef and butcher, established Little Beast featuring authentic British freestanding meat pies packed with Guinness-braised beef and lamb korma.
•Little Beast wins Eater Seattle’s 2025 Restaurant of the Year by embracing rustic, gloomy English pub style to comfort locals.
•Young British chefs, including NYC’s Lilli Maren, update 'beige, brown mush' food myths via social media, sparking a US wave of British-inspired eateries.

Chef Kevin Smith of Seattle, grumbling over American pot pies' lazy crusts, launched Little Beast, a pub where meat pies stand upright thanks to centuries of British pastry patience. With dishes like Guinness-braised beef shank and chile-lamb korma pies, he channels South London's gloomy charm to 'warm the bones' of a Pacific Northwest colder than most British summers. His pub won Eater Seattle’s Restaurant of the Year 2025—proof cold, dark, and rustic vibes sell. Meanwhile, British food's global reputation for 'beige, brown mush' is getting a makeover from NYC's pastry star Lilli Maren, social media savvy London chefs, and pubs from LA to Fort Worth, where people nostalgically sling coats over chairs while choosing between pig’s head and Welsh rarebit with anchovies. Because nothing says culinary progress like fried pig heads on a wooden table in a green-paneled room.