GARY USHER - chef, restaurateur, Twitter enforcer and a bloody hard bloke to pin down, is finally heading to Manchester with new bistro Hispi.
Hispi will be the same shit. Bistro food, no fannying about...
Following the rampant success of Sticky Walnut in Chester, named the AA Guide's 2014 Restaurant of the Year, Usher went on to open his second restaurant, Burnt Truffle in Heswall, via online crowdfunding; turning dreams to reality with a generous dollop of community spirit and a cool £100,000.
Now this is all well and good, but it’s hardly fair us city dwellers should have to venture into the deepest depths of Cheshire for some Usher magic now is it?
It appears Gary agrees, with teasers popping up on Twitter surrounding the prospect of a third restaurant in the lentil-loving suburb of Chorlton. Aside from a new social media account, the name ‘Hispi’ and the odd tweet, however, the project remained shrouded in mystery. That was until Confidential followed him home, bonked him over the head with a turnip, tied him to a chair and threw these questions at him...
So the Chorlton opening, do we have a date?
Gary: "Not yet. I would love it to be this summer but there's too much to do. There are certain things that need to happen to push this along. This Friday is a big one, I'm looking at three sites and hoping to nail down one in particular. With Burnt and Sticky there wasn't any pre-conceived idea of what I was looking for. I see Russell Norman, who looks at his Polpo sites with this great mastermind philosophy... well, I don't have that. I just go in and if I get a good feeling for the place that's all I need.
Is it hard to move forward without a location?
G: "When we crowdfunded for Burnt there was no site, and it sounds stupid but as long as you've got your ideas, know what you want to do and know whereabouts you want to be, then the specific site is really not that necessary for moving forward.The same goes for staff and chefs, that's not sorted but it will be.
Sticky Walnut
You've found your forte creating proper little neighbourhood bistros. Many think Chorlton lacks one... is this something you considered?
G: "Nah, I'm not clever enough to do that. Just as with Burnt, I didn't sit there working it all out. I liked the place and went for it. I still don't know Chorlton that well as an area, I haven't been round and scrutinised all the restaurants there, I just like it. Also my brother lives there and always goes on about it being a great place for a third restaurant due to the sense of community. He loves Beech Road, I do too, but right now there's nothing there quite suitable enough."
In terms of food, will you stick to what you know or risk something different?
G: "Same shit. What I do at Stick and Burnt is what I know so it will be the same sort of stuff... bistro food, no fannying about. There may be a couple of extra braises and obviously the team will have some fresh ideas but, as a whole, the ethos will remain the same."
Usher and his brigade outside Sticky
So we gather you're calling the third restaurant Hispi, where have you plucked that from?
G: "Hispi is a cabbage. Our head chef at Sticky ate somewhere in France which served chargrilled cabbage as a main course. He came back and was like "Hell, we're ordering some in" - it's featured in loads of our dishes ever since. The name for Burnt Truffle came from Twitter, we did the same for this third site but when Luke suggested Hispi I knew it was right.
After the wedge you raised for Burnt Truffle, do you think you'll use crowdfunding again?
G: "Not to the same extent but it will definitely be a factor. I'll still need to go to the banks but I really enjoyed the crowdfunding journey with Burnt, it's a fucking cool way of doing it. People feel like they’re part of something, too: the main thing people went in for was the meal voucher, stick £100 in and you'd get a meal for four at Sticky Walnut. People loved that because they were getting something proper for their money. I'll be going down that route again for sure."
Gary Usher plans to open Hispi somewhere in Chorlton later in 2016.
