Latest news with #GaryUsher
Daily Mail
12-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Popular restaurant chain with 70 locations faces closures as owners put business up for sale
The owners of a beloved UK restaurant chain have put the business up for sale, putting locations at risk of closure. Partners Group, the private equity firm in control of French-themed restaurant Côte Brasserie, have announced an auction of the restaurant. The firm is searching for new investors for the chain, which they bought out of administration in 2020 in a deal reportedly worth £55 million. The process could result in the closure of Côte Brasserie locations around the UK, Sky News reported. According to sources familiar with the sale, the chain is being marketed based on its turnover last year of £150million. There are currently 70 Côte Brasserie locations, with the figure previously standing at 100 before the business went into insolvency five years ago. Out of the 70 sites, 60 are said to be profitable, suggesting there might be room for more closures soon. Côte Brasserie's Gloucester Quays location, which opened in 2017, recently shut its doors after a location in Hampstead, London, similarly served its final dishes after 14 years, according to The Sun. MailOnline has reached out to Côte Brasserie for comment. It comes after Gary Usher revealed that his Heswall-based bistro Burnt Truffle closed its doors at the start of this year, admitting he had 'never been able to make it work'. The chef, who owns a collection of restaurants in and around Manchester, took to X to announce the 'sad' news, explaining that the location is 'closed for good' after its ten-year lease expired. The crowdfunded restaurant opened its doors in Heswall in July 2015 after securing £100,000 in a month from 891 donations, and went on to receive glowing reviews from food critics, including Jay Rayner, and gained two Rosettes. Usher, sometimes dubbed 'Britain's most controversial chef' thanks to his outspoken opinions, candidly explained that though the government made business 'difficult', he ultimately was 'never able to make it work'. Despite mourning the loss, he explained that the decision was the best for business and that he has paid all suppliers and staff through a loan, which he will pay back via revenue from his five other restaurants, including the Sticky Walnut in Hoole, Chester, 'Some news,' he said on X, continuing, '@BuRntTruffle is now closed. Thank you to all the team & all the guests over the last 10 years. 'Our lease has come to an end & we have decided to part ways. All our bills are paid & all vouchers will be redeemed. From all of us at Burnt Truffle, Thank you & good night.' Usher explained further in a video posted to the platform, saying: 'I need to share some news with you, and unfortunately, it's not great news. I'm sitting here in Burnt Truffle, and we are now closed. We're closed for good.' The chef continued: 'So Burnt Truffle, I had a ten-year lease, and that lease has come to an end. I could have renewed that lease, but the honest truth is that I've never been able to make it work here. 'I've been quite vocal 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. 'The best business decision for us is to close, so we're closing Burnt Truffle from today. 'I know there's going to be lots of questions over the next few days and I'll answer all of them.' Usher explained that vouchers purchased for Burnt Truffle are redeemable or they can be used in his other restaurants. He added: 'We've paid all our bills, so the VAT is paid, all our suppliers are paid, our rent is paid, we have unfortunately had to have made people redundant with the closure of this business, and obviously they've been paid. Everybody has been paid. 'I have a... loan, which I took out in the pandemic, which I still must pay, and I will, through the wider business. 'Other than that, it feels like it's been tied up as well as closing a restaurant can be. It is a sad day, it really is. 'When I think back to when we opened here, they had the likes of Jay Rayner and Lisa Markwell coming and we got two rosettes quite quickly too, we were the first crowdfunded restaurant in the UK with non-investment crowdfunding so that started our journey with crowdfunding. 'So, what does it mean for the business moving forward? Well, we carry on, we just keep on going, we keep trying and we keep on innovating to get through these tough times.' Usher concluded: 'Thank you to everyone that came, thank you to all the team, thank you to all the guests... we've loved being in Burnt Truffle, but that's the end.' In 2023, Gary caused a storm after hitting back at 'ridiculous' complaints about a burger costing nearly £20 at his restaurant. Gary also made headlines in 2018 after a customer complained about the Sticky Walnut's lack of 'customer skills' after staff were asked to go shop for lemonade for a red wine spritzer. Gary shot down the customer saying: 'We often nip out for people's requests. It's part of great hospitality. We just don't do it if you're a rude c***'. Gary starred in a Channel 4 documentary in 2019 called The Rebel Chef: My Restaurant Revolution. The documentary followed the opening of one of his crowdfunded bistros Pinion in the Merseyside Town of Prescot. In 2020, Usher took aim at a negative review and slammed a customer who said her meal at his restaurant was a 'rip-off' in a damning online review. Emma said the £122 bill for her meal - one course with drinks for two people - was 'eye-wateringly expensive', and the price tag was 'really not worth it'. Usher claimed she had misunderstood the pricing, and that they could have ordered a three-course set menu for just £39 each, claiming that Emma and her dining companion were 'rude' and wouldn't allow the manager to explain this at the time. The outspoken chef also went viral in 2021 after hitting back at a customer who wrote a scathing two-star Tripadvisor review. In the review titled 'excellent food let down by Ryanair style service', the diner had blasted the manager for 'not giving a toss' about customer service, which Usher vehemently denied. The unsatisfied diner, known only as Rob V, wrote: 'The good news is that the food here is very, very tasty and deserves a high rating. 'The bad news is that the restaurant management doesn't give a toss about customer experience. 'I ate here on July 9 had a complaint that was dealt with badly enough by the manager that I wrote to the owner. 'A restaurant that aspires to offer fine dining experience but has lost the ability to empathise with customers and ignores them when they complain? That really is a shame.' Usher was quick to respond with his own blistering write-up. He replied: 'For goodness sake Robert. I'm supposed to be in TwitAdvisor retirement so let's not waste any time. After all, you've waited 11 years since joining Twitadvisor to write your first review. 'Rob you reserved a table on a Friday evening and agreed to a 1 hour 45 minute time slot. A standard practice, particularly on busy periods, that guests and restaurants worldwide agree to. 'After your dessert course the Manager, who you said "doesn't give a toss", gently reminded you that we would need the table back shortly. You ignored the manager and proceeded to order another round of drinks. 'Perhaps if your party had arrived on time for your reservation this could have been avoided.'
Scottish Sun
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Channel 4 star & award-winning chef closes city centre restaurant after 6 years – as he admits ‘we weren't busy enough'
The celeb chef was forced to close another bistro earlier this year KITCHEN CLOSED Channel 4 star & award-winning chef closes city centre restaurant after 6 years – as he admits 'we weren't busy enough' Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) AN AWARD-winning chef has been forced to shut another of his restaurants after a drastic drop-off in bookings. Gary Usher, who starred in Channel 4's documentary "The Rebel Chef: My Restaurant Revolution", took to Instagram to announce the closure. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Kala, a bistro in Manchester city centre restaurant, has closed after six years Credit: Google 4 Chef Gary Usher blamed a dramatic fall in business for the closure Credit: Twitter/StickyWalnut 4 The restaurant was billed as "Manchester's neighbour bistro" but bookings had halved Credit: Google Kala, on King Street in Manchester, has now shuttered its doors after six years of service. Billed as "Manchester's neighbour bistro", the city centre restaurant marketed itself towards the theatre and opera crowd. But with bookings falling to half their previous level, Gary said he was left with no choice but to close. He added that any customers concerned about any vouchers they may have for the restaurant could use it at any other of the chef's sites. In a statement on Instagram the chef said: 'It's with a heavy heart that I announce the immediate closure of Kala. "I'm not really sure how to explain why we've closed other than we weren't busy enough to cover our costs. "I really really want to blame the economy & the pandemic. I really want to say the rising costs have made it impossible. 'All those factors haven't helped but we are 50% down in trade at Kala & that is the killer. "It goes without saying our business rates increasing substantially & the hike in NIC contributions only works against us. "This was not planned but neither was us being this quiet in June. All the Kala team will be paid up to date, our rent & suppliers too. If you have a voucher with us, as always it can be used in the wider group. Moment McDonald's worker SLAPS yob across head before brawl breaks out as group storm restaurant 'It was always a dream to have a restaurant on King Street in Manchester. I just wish it had lasted longer than six years.' The fate of the Manchester restaurant follows closely on the heels of the closure of another restaurant in Usher's Elite Bistros portfolio in January this year. The famed chef opened Burnt Truffle in July 2015 in Heswall, Merseyside. But at the start of this year Usher said the lease of the restaurant had ended and described the closure as a "sad day". The cooking star added that he had chosen to not renew the lease as the "honest truth" was that they had "never been able to make it work" at the site. The closure of Kala leaves Usher with four restaurants remaining in his northern restaurant empire. Hispi in trendy Didsbury means Usher still has a presence in England's second city. The other three survivors are Wreck in Liverpool, The Sticky Walnut in Hoole, Cheshire and The White Horse in Churton, Cheshire. 4 Kala was a city centre staple and survived for six years in a competitive food scene Credit: Google Usher founded the award-winning Elite Bistros group in 2011 before opening up a string of successful restaurants in the North West. In 2019, he was the subject of the Channel 4 show The Rebel Chef: My Restaurant Revolution. The hour-long documentary witnessed Gary's quest to crowdfund £50,000 to build a French-style bistro in Prescot, Merseyside. That same year he was shortlisted for the coveted Best Restaurateur accolade at the GQ Food and Drink awards.
The Sun
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Channel 4 star & award-winning chef closes city centre restaurant after 6 years – as he admits ‘we weren't busy enough'
KITCHEN CLOSED The celeb chef was forced to close another bistro earlier this year Published: 10:36, AN AWARD-winning chef has been forced to shut another of his restaurants after a drastic drop-off in bookings. Gary Usher, who starred in Channel 4's documentary "The Rebel Chef: My Restaurant Revolution", took to Instagram to announce the closure. 4 4 Kala, on King Street in Manchester, has now shuttered its doors after six years of service. Billed as "Manchester's neighbour bistro", the city centre restaurant marketed itself towards the theatre and opera crowd. But with bookings falling to half their previous level, Gary said he was left with no choice but to close. He added that any customers concerned about any vouchers they may have for the restaurant could use it at any other of the chef's sites. In a statement on Instagram the chef said: 'It's with a heavy heart that I announce the immediate closure of Kala. "I'm not really sure how to explain why we've closed other than we weren't busy enough to cover our costs. "I really really want to blame the economy & the pandemic. I really want to say the rising costs have made it impossible. 'All those factors haven't helped but we are 50% down in trade at Kala & that is the killer. "It goes without saying our business rates increasing substantially & the hike in NIC contributions only works against us. "This was not planned but neither was us being this quiet in June. All the Kala team will be paid up to date, our rent & suppliers too. If you have a voucher with us, as always it can be used in the wider group. Moment McDonald's worker SLAPS yob across head before brawl breaks out as group storm restaurant 'It was always a dream to have a restaurant on King Street in Manchester. I just wish it had lasted longer than six years.' The fate of the Manchester restaurant follows closely on the heels of the closure of another restaurant in Usher's Elite Bistros portfolio in January this year. The famed chef opened Burnt Truffle in July 2015 in Heswall, Merseyside. But at the start of this year Usher said the lease of the restaurant had ended and described the closure as a "sad day". The cooking star added that he had chosen to not renew the lease as the "honest truth" was that they had "never been able to make it work" at the site. The closure of Kala leaves Usher with four restaurants remaining in his northern restaurant empire. Hispi in trendy Didsbury means Usher still has a presence in England's second city. The other three survivors are Wreck in Liverpool, The Sticky Walnut in Hoole, Cheshire and The White Horse in Churton, Cheshire. 4 Usher founded the award-winning Elite Bistros group in 2011 before opening up a string of successful restaurants in the North West. In 2019, he was the subject of the Channel 4 show The Rebel Chef: My Restaurant Revolution. The hour-long documentary witnessed Gary's quest to crowdfund £50,000 to build a French-style bistro in Prescot, Merseyside. That same year he was shortlisted for the coveted Best Restaurateur accolade at the GQ Food and Drink awards.
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Twelve of Brian Wilson's greatest songs – from surf to psychedelia and beyond
Although co-written with Gary Usher, this reflective hymn to isolation was pure Brian autobiography, conceived as the pressures of pop success loomed. 'I had a room I thought of as my kingdom,' Wilson said, 'somewhere you could lock out the world.' The domain in question was the Wilson family's music room where Brian slept 'right beside the piano'. Part-inspired by the Charms' 1956 doo-wop hit Ivory Tower, which the Wilson brothers sang themselves to sleep with, In My Room sonically recreates Brian's feelings of sanctuary by blending his brothers' sweet-sad harmonies with finger cymbals, harp glissandi and Santo & Johnny-style Sleep Walk guitar. Soothing yet eerie, the song spoke to the nation of 60s teenagers whose only refuge was their bedroom, and whose worries and fears all waited for them outside that door. Only Brian Wilson could hear the Ronettes' Be My Baby and think it lacked a sense of dread. Originally written for Ronnie Spector and co as a sequel to their 1963 pop hit, Don't Worry Baby was finally recorded by the Beach Boys and released as flip-side to the exhilarating Saturday night cruisin' anthem I Get Around. Both are car songs but Don't Worry Baby taps into the shame and insecurity behind the A-side's masculine braggadocio. A love song told in the third person, with the girlfriend's titular words of reassurance sung in the high vulnerable falsetto of their fearful recipient, Don't Worry Baby is also one of Brian's finest productions, the longing and reassurance of the lyrics echoed in both the group's lush vocal arrangements and the warm click of Al Jardine's Fender Precision bass. Conceived while Brian was playing the piano in the wake of an acid trip, this knowing throwback to the group's early Chuck Berry-style list songs like Surfin' Safari and Surfin' USA is the sound of teen naivety realigned by LSD. A lyrical collaboration with Mike Love, it's a song that exists as both high art and disposable pop. Note how its divinely beautiful proto-psych opening bars – with those twin electric 12-string guitars played in chamber echo – give way to Al De Lory's almost comical roller-rink organ, or the way the vocal harmonies on that 'I wish they all could be California girls' chorus come with a note of weary disenchantment, as if to say: I've been around the world and had my fun but I'd just like to go home now. Simultaneously a work of artistic maturity and emotional anguish, God Only Knows captures the duality of Brian Wilson's genius better than any other Beach Boys composition. Lyrically, the song's opening two verses are a cumulative denial of love, a declaration of eternal love, a surrender to the heavens and a kind of emotional threat ('If you should ever leave me … '). Nothing is simple here, least of all the music. From the intro's union of french horn, piano and bells that suggest both sacred and sentimental to the angelic, interweaving harmonies that convey everything from contented sigh to delicate apprehension, God Only Knows is the pop song as exalted state, a transformative ineffable experience where euphoria and despair are one and the same. Once described by Brian Wilson as 'my whole life performance in one track', this psychedelic Rhapsody in Blue took eight months, and cost nearly $70,000, to record. Well, it was worth it, wasn't it? Recorded as six separate movements in four studios, Good Vibrations is boy-girl pop as abstract cut-up. Rooted in the simple idea of a young man spying a woman from afar, it blossoms into a swirling sonic puzzle whose miraculous beauty can be broken down into constituent parts – the ghostly female vocal of Paul Tanner's electro-theremin, those throbbing primal cellos, the boys' wordless, choir-like harmonies that turn lust into a prayer – but never fully comprehended. What is with that opening? Those four bars of Jerry Cole's detuned 12-string guitar that sound like a child's music box and then the cold thud of Hal Blaine's snare drum? Well that's the song: naivety and hope v the slammed-shut door of reality. Brian and his co-writer Tony Asher wrote the lyric from the perspective of a teenage boy dreaming of a serious relationship with a woman: standard 60s pop sentiments. But the rhetorical nature of those lyrics, the semi-mocking tone of Mike Love's middle eight ('Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray, it might come true') and Brian's key changes and tempo shifts lend the song a curiously introspective tone. Yes, it's bright, happy radio pop and you can always hear it as that, but it's one where the dream is forever out of reach. What price genius? Here is the answer. Working with the Mississippi-born poet and songwriter Van Dyke Parks in a fevered attempt to top Good Vibrations, Brian set about transforming a Marty-Robbins-style country ballad into an overstuffed, wild west operetta that became a sonic encapsulation of Brian's own encroaching paranoia. The song went through dozens of variations before Parks was fired over 'indecipherable' lyrics, and a shorter, rougher incarnation was recorded for 1967's Smiley Smile. Although dismissed by Jimi Hendrix as 'psychedelic barbershop', it now sounds stranger than ever, a baroque layering of weird instruments and complex vocal harmonies hurtling towards a mournful second half that signifies both artistic contentment and psychic exhaustion. A cornerstone of 1967's unfinished Smile project, Surf's Up is an abstract three-part suite lovingly reassembled by brother Carl for the Beach Boys' album of the same name in 1971. Overdubbed with Moog synthesiser bass, and Carl's 1971 vocals perfectly blending with Brian's original 1966 take, the finished LP version is an undeniable masterpiece. It moves with stoned certainty through florid 19th-century imagery heavy with portent, before repurposing a line from an 1802 Wordsworth poem – 'the child is father to the man' – into a beautifully multilayered song of innocence and experience that repeatedly reflects back upon itself until it vanishes. Written in an hour-and-a-half at his Bellagio mansion, following a sudden late-night feeling that 'the whole world should be about love', this speedily recorded paean to global happiness, less than two minutes long, might be one of the most uplifting songs Brian ever wrote. On the one hand, it's rooted in loneliness and insomnia, centred on the pointed and painful line 'but when they leave you wait alone'. Yet the way the harmonies weave in and out of each other and the keys repeatedly take the song on different pathways feels so adventurous and optimistic that joy is undeniable. It's one thing for a lyric to remind you that you're 'happy 'cause you're living and you're free' but it's another for the song itself to actually make you feel that way. That's genius. Effectively a solo LP, with Brian producing and playing keyboards, synthesisers and drums, 1977's The Beach Boys Love You is one of the stranger recordings in the group's back catalogue. Yet, among the endearingly lo-fi songs about Johnny Carson, the solar system and 'honking down the highway' is this heartbreakingly fragile tune. Over quacking synths and synthetic chords, a vocally ravaged Brian and Dennis trade verses about losing out to the other man before Carl comes in on the bridge, insisting 'Don't you ever tell me that you're leaving' – his soaring vocal sounds like the angelic Beach Boys of bygone years. The result is a small moment of bittersweet perfection that captures Brian and the group between joy and despair. A semi-autobiographical song influenced by Jackie DeShannon's 1965 version of Bacharach and David's What the World Needs Now Is Love, and bound up in Brian's own desire to 'give love to people', this vulnerable benediction begins in the real ('I was sitting in a crummy movie with my hands on my chin') with Brian despairing at the state of the world ('A lot of people out there hurtin'') before realising that he has the power to bestow compassion on the world. If only through multitracked harmony vocals. Like This Whole World, it's a song that notices a lack of something in the world while simultaneously filling that lack, an exuberant secular blessing from a pop god. With their references to Surf's Up, Pet Sounds and such early melancholy Brian compositions as The Warmth of the Sun and Surfer Girl, the final three tracks on the last Beach Boys studio LP work as a kind of mournful valedictory suite. Lyrically, the individual songs – From There to Back Again, Pacific Coast Highway and Summer's Gone – reference familiar Beach Boys themes of sunshine, California and dreams of escape but shot through with thoughts of mortality and death. 'Sunlight's fading and there's not much left to say,' he laments on Pacific Coast Highway, and it's one of the finest songs about the acceptance of old age and the loss of inspiration. Arranged and produced by Wilson, the suite is as warm, poignant and wistful as a summer sunset, a quiet acceptance of beauty in its final dying moments.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
Trendy village an hour from Manchester named one of UK's 'coolest places to live' in 2025
A charming village just an hour away from Manchester has been named as one of the UK's 'coolest places to live'. Hoole, a trendy suburb in Chester, is often likened to Notting Hill in west London for its array of independent stores, bars, bistros, and attractive Victorian terraces originally constructed for railway workers. Hoole had an overall average house price of £313,638 over the last year, according to Rightmove. The majority of properties sold were semi-detached properties, selling for an average price of £370,440. Overall, house prices were 6 percent higher than the previous year. The area gained national recognition when it scooped up the Great British High Street of the Year award in 2016. Seven years later, it still holds onto its cool factor, with The Times listing the CH2 postcode as one of Britain's 11 trendiest postcodes. READ MORE: Majorca issues stark warning as it plans to ditch UK tourists READ MORE: Christie consultant caught in sex act with man on train as passengers sat metres away The Times said: "It's Chester's oldest 'burb, but 'Notting Hoole', as the locals' tongue-in-cheek nickname goes, is the spot for indie spirit and cool café culture within a half-hour saunter of Chezza's city centre. "Beyond bagging a res at the neighbourhood favourite Sticky Walnut, the chef Gary Usher's flagship bistro (the rotation of hearty dishes includes chicken schnitzel and ox heart kebabs), foodies can head to Okells for breads, spreads and silky flat whites, or there are brill brunches on offer at Little Yellow Pig, a thoroughly cute café." It recommended: "The Faulkner is Hoole's go-to gastropub, while the veg boxes from the wholefood store Hoole Food Market are a must. And the crowd? The east London creative Oliver Hooson is a now a regular — he's currently renovating one of the smart Victorian red-bricks in his hometown — as well as cool young parents who have fled London for more space and Parent Power-approved state schools. "If that's your scene, there's pregnancy yoga at Hoole Community Centre and baby-friendly classes at Barre Esthetique. Slings at the ready." Hoole is an affluent area and a sought-after place to live, reports the Echo. In September 2024 Innes North, who relocated from Toxteth to Hoole, shared: "I retired from working at BT when I was 67 and decided to move here to be near my daughter. It's a lovely place to live." "My friends and family are in Liverpool, but they come here all the time for their holidays - I can't get rid of them! I don't miss Liverpool because it's so easy to go there on the train." Meanwhile, Leann Shaw, owner of Hoole Food Market, remarked: "It's just a lovely social shopping experience here. You can buy what you need and you get to talk to the nice people behind the counter." Kevin Bartlett, proprietor of Hoptons Butchers, commented: "Business is good, it's back to normal now after the pandemic. People come here for the quality of the produce and for the service. I think being able to buy what they want in small amounts is a big draw for them." Meanwhile, Sophie, who was employed at the local community centre, expressed her affection for Hoole and its "amazing community", but she is unable to afford living there due to the high cost of rent and property.
