Chef Gary Usher has filmed a documentary charting the opening of his Pinion restaurant in Prescot, which will debut this autumn.
Airing on Channel 4, the one-off hour-long documentary will follow the chef’s journey as he opens his Pinion restaurant, the sixth venture for his Elite Bistros group.
The documentary will include Usher’s stellar crowdfunding campaign for Pinion which saw the chef reach his £50,000 target in less than an hour, while viewers will also get to see Usher’s efforts to lure in wary locals to dine on the likes of Mexican spiced baby squid and truffle and Parmesan chips.
Pinion opened in Prescot in September 2018, on the former site of a BetFred betting shop and was the first new restaurant to open in the town for over 30 years. Usher hopes that his restaurant will help to revive the area and bring more foot traffic to the town, which has recently been affected by the opening of a large shopping complex nearby.
Usher has gained somewhat of a cult fan following over the years, largely thanks to his refreshingly honest opinions about the restaurant industry and his exuberant personality. This in turn has led to massive support for the creation of his restaurants, which have mostly been realised through crowdfunding.
Image: Tom Belger
Just nine months after he raised £50,000 in under 60 minutes for Pinion, he again broke crowdfunding records by racking up an astonishing £100,000 in only 11 hours to open Kala in Manchester. The campaign was not only a personal best for Usher, but broke Kickstarter’s records, becoming the fastest funded project in the world.
Currently, Usher’s Elite Bistros restaurant group consists of six sites: Kala in Manchester, Sticky Walnut in Hoole, Burnt Truffle in Heswall, Hispi in Didsbury, Wreckfish in Liverpool and Pinion in Prescot.
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Featured image: Dan Burns