In a post on X the chef and restaurateur said the restaurant was now closed as the 10-year lease had come to an end and he wasn’t going to renew it.
“I could have renewed that lease, but the honest truth is that I’ve never been able to make it work here,” Usher says in a video post.
“I’ve been honest about how difficult the Government have made it over the last few years but ultimately I’ve never been able to make it work here so the best business decision for us is to close.”
Usher says that all the restaurant’s bills have been paid, including its suppliers, rent and VAT and that people who have unused vouchers can either redeem them at Elite Bistros’ other venues, which include bistros Sticky Walnut, Wreck, Hispi, Kala and Pinion, The White Horse Pub or its bakery, or seek a refund.
A number of staff have been made redundant as a result of the closure.
“It feels like it has been tied up as well as a restaurant business can be,” he says.
Burnt Truffle was the first restaurant in the UK to be funded by a non-investment crowdfund and created a blueprint for Usher to open a number of other venues within his Elite Bistros company.
Usher has made no secret about the challenges of running his Heswall restaurant. In November 2023 he took to X to try and encourage diners to come to the restaurant, warning that he may be forced to close it unless trade picked up.
“We still love Burnt Truffle,” he said. “If it’s not to be it’s not to be and we will never give up, but if people don’t come it obviously doesn’t work.
“Appreciate this looks desperate and perhaps a bit needy, but we just aren’t getting enough people in to cover the costs of being open.
Discussing the closure, Usher adds: “It’s a sad day, it really is.
“What does it mean for the business going forward? We carry on. We keep trying and we keep innovating to get through these tough times, and that’s it really.
“We’ve loved being is Heswall, we’ve loved being in Burnt Truffe, but that’s the end.”