Gary Usher secures third restaurant site

Chef Gary Usher has secured a site for his third restaurant Hispi in Didsbury, South Manchester.

It follows a crowdfunding campaign which saw the chef raise over £58,000 to open a neighbourhood bistro in Chorlton.

But the venue fell through after Usher had begun recruiting staff and buying furniture for the site.

Now the chef has put down a deposit on the former Jem & I venue in Didsbury Village to open his third restaurant.

Writing on the Hispi Kickstarter page, he offered to reimburse those unhappy with the new location.

“The whole idea of Kickstarter and crowdfunding in this way is that a load of people see your vision, believe in it, then ultimately help you to achieve it,” Usher wrote.

“I should be more excited than I am but obviously I realise that not all of you will approve. To fix this I am more than happy to privately reimburse anyone who feels that they no longer want to be involved in the project.

“For those of you who are still on board - thank you so much once again for making Hispi now become a reality. I guess (hope!) the next Kickstarter update will be key day!!”

Hispi is the latest success story for the chef, who launched Sticky Walnut in Chester in 2011 and crowdfunded over £100,000 to open Burnt Truffle is Heswall last year.