Posting on Twitter, Usher says that the business is about to sign a lease for a new site where the Elite Bistros at Home business will continue.
“Permission to broadcast some good news... With your help in the success of elite bistros at home (the business I didn’t want to do) we are at the start of a lease signing process for a new site from which not only will we carry it on but also pursue outside catering like weddings,” he writes.
Elite at Home launched nationwide in June last year following some reluctance from Usher to follow many of his restaurant peers and enter the make at home market.
Speaking to BigHospitality last year in a Community Heroes video as part of the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards, Usher said he initially pushed back against plans for Elite Bistros at Home.
“I was pretty negative because of everything that was happening and finding it hard to be optimistic about anything to do with the business” he admitted.
However, he was eventually convinced to do so by other in the company and the business has since become very successful.
“We launched it and the demand was ridiculous. It was overwhelming how many boxes we sold. I realised there is a business here and I was wrong,” said Usher. “It’s got legs and we won’t give it up. I can’t see it ever finishing.
On the subject of the meal kit service, Elite Bistro’s operations manager Gareth Jones told Bighospitality late last year that Elite at Home would continue “as long as there is a demand for it”.
“In terms of the future, it’s very much something we see as part of the business now,” he said. “As long as there is demand for it, we’ll continue to work with it because we think it’s a really good product that people seem to want and enjoy.”