This autumn, a new chapter began.

Through the velvet curtains and moody lighting of the iconic Crazy Bear in Beaconsfield, through the cocktail lounge, down a staircase, lives Bear, a fourteen-seat chef’s table restaurant led by acclaimed chef Carlo Scotto. Recently opened, Bear by Carlo Scotto is less a restaurant and more a living performance. Guests sit shoulder-to-shoulder at a sweeping, black polished marble counter facing the open kitchen. No walls. No distance. No barrier between you and the alchemy of creation and cooking. The best seats in the house to watch Scotto, choreograph his team as they dance around the kitchen skilfully and elegantly. No shouting in this kitchen, peace and harmony reign supreme - but plenty of serious focus. 

You don’t simply eat here.
You experience across your senses.

The air hums with anticipation. Knives tap rhythmically against chopping boards. Saucepans hiss. Music thrums deep, atmospheric, curated with intention. Every detail, from soundtrack to plating, feels considered. Nothing accidental. Everything meaningful.

The chefs move: fluid, precise, instinctively aware of one another. Scotto stands at the centre, not dominating, but conducting, ensuring that all the right notes are hit. There is artistry, certainly. But also, what anchors it is intimacy. This is dining as theatre.

A Brief History: Eccentricity built into the walls

Crazy Bear Beaconsfield occupies the oldest documented coaching inn in England, dating back to 1687. What was once a stopover for weary travellers is now one of the most distinctive hospitality destinations in the South.

Crazy Bear didn’t simply renovate the venue, it reinvented. If you haven't had the pleasure, think gilt-edged mirrors catching warm but moody lighting, velvet upholstery that feels like dusk to the touch. A sense of playful excess, as though the building itself is a theatre, with you as player.

Over the years, Crazy Bear has become known for the dramatic and the unexpected. Yet Bear introduces something new: restraint. Still luxurious, but quieter. More focused. A jewel within a kaleidoscope. In fact, recent renovations keep the sense of playfulness, of opulence, yet with a slightly more grown-up stylish touch.

BEAR: A Chef’s Table with Heart

Carlo Scotto’s arrival marks a notable moment for Buckinghamshire’s culinary landscape.

His experience spans Paris, Tokyo and New York, kitchens where discipline is a religion and flavour a language. In London, he opened restaurants that became instant favourites for critics and diners alike.

Nearly two years ago he stepped away Amethyst, from hospitality entirely, allowing stillness to replace intensity. Bear is the result of that pause, that reflection; the clarity that follows exhale.

This is his most personal project yet.

What Guests Experience: A Story Told in Eight Chapters

Dining at Bear is participatory. It demands presence.

There is no menu.No preview.No expectations.

Eight courses begin not at the counter, but in Bear’s cocktail lounge with some delightful amuse bouche to whet your appetite, hand delivered by the chefs themselves. It becomes clear from the first moment: everyone here has ownership of the experience. Not least Scotto's team; Sous Chef Nkosi Sibanda, Junior Sous Paige and Pastry Chef Ali. 

And then there is the pairing. Wine, sake and ferments are poured with intention. A crisp sake softens the edges of a dish like silk over stone. A mineral white wine lifts the brightness of foraged herbs. A delicious mead that whispers of the Chiltern woods. Each pour moves the story forward.You sit at the counter and time folds.

You hear the gentle sizzle of miso glossing duck skin. You smell citrus and pine from foraged leaves.
You watch tweezers descend on a single petal as if it were a gemstone. BEAR invites -no, demands, mindful eating. But this is not pretentious- when first course arrives: laminated brioche, buttery and fragile, paired with wood ear tea. It flakes everywhere. You’re encouraged indulge in the inevitable mess, helping you relax, and enjoy

There’s no dress code at Bear, but making an effort seemed the least I could do. Whilst this is deliciously unpretentious, lets not forget it's a special occasion. 

A Menu Written by Nature

Scotto’s flavour instincts are global - Nordic purity, Asian precision, Arabic warmth, grounded always by British seasonality. Half of the ingredients are foraged from the Chiltern Hills.

I haven’t space here to run through the whole menu, and it is always changing, here is a taste of our evening’s menu. One Amuse Bouche: Cornish Bluefin tuna zuke bonburi with myoga, caviar and pickled seaweed. One plate: A delicate pasta with squash, black garlic and mascarpone, a quiet nod to Scotto’s Italian heritage, though the global influences remain present on every plate.

Standout dishes linger in memory like postcards: Ike Jime chalk stream trout with wild sea beets, green walnuts and smoky Ardbeg. Miso-glazed duck with girolles, damsons, blue moon radish and umeshu jus.

The plates arrive as sculptures. The flavours are global, yet rooted. Confident, but never shouting.

The drink pairings were outstanding too. A 2015 Rheingräfenberg Spätlese with Atlantic cod and mango. The wine, softened with age, carries quiet sweetness and restrained acidity. It tempers heat, cuts through richness, and brings harmony. A pairing I secretly thought shouldn’t work, but does, brilliantly. At Bear, trust becomes an important ingredient. 

Crazy Bear Spaces: A Cinematic Backdrop

Where Crazy Bear dazzles with sensual opulence, a place that feels almost dreamlike, Bear introduces a new tone: stillness. Intimacy. Focus. A stylish escape from the ordinary.

Crazy Bear Beaconsfield has always offered escape: glamour, whimsical, theatre.
But Bear brings soul. Here dining becomes performance. Ingredients become emotion. Evenings become memories.

At the end of the night, you receive the menu from that evening, signed by every member of the team. A quiet acknowledgment that what you witnessed was a shared achievement.

Bear is not just dinner. It is connectivity. It is craft.
It is a moment you carry home with you, long after the final sip, long after the final plate. In Carlo Scotto we trust.