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Wreckfish food dish

Gary Usher's Wreckfish opens with support from Barclays

30 October 2017

Chef-owner Gary Usher launched his latest restaurant this month, with the help of a £200k financial injection from Barclays.

Wreckfish (www.wreckfish.co) is the fourth restaurant in Gary Usher’s portfolio and will open to the public after Barclays helped towards financing the renovation of the new restaurant on the popular Seel Street, opposite boutique hotel, The Nadler.

Wreckfish recently made the headlines after a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign raised the initial £200k required to start the project. With support from the likes of chefs Tom Kerridge, Simon Rimmer and several other Michelin-star chefs, it was the largest ever amount raised in the UK by Kickstarter for a restaurant.

Gary’s first restaurant Sticky Walnut (www.stickywalnut.net) opened in Chester in January 2011, and had since been awarded Catey ‘Menu of the Year, AA ‘Restaurant of the Year’, Cheshire life ‘ Restaurant of the Year’, amongst other accolades.

A few years later he opened a second bistro, Burnt Truffle (www.burnttruffle.net) in Heswall and in September 2016 opened Hispi (www.hispi.net) in Didsbury, which has already received 2 AA Rosettes.

Gary said: “I couldn’t be happier to open our fourth restaurant and still can’t believe we’ve made this happen. Starting as a pop up in the derelict building in February, breaking crowdfunding records in May and securing funds from Barclays to complete the project has been a huge challenge but really rewarding. We’re looking forward to the future and any other challenges we may face, which are made all the easier when you have the full backing of your Bank.”

The loan was arranged by Barclays and led by Business Manager Mike Lockwood. He commented: “Gary has proven himself to be highly creative and successful both in and out of the kitchen and Wreckfish is testament to his hard work and tenacious attitude. With our industry knowledge and ability to structure the right finance package, Barclays is delighted to help Wreckfish become a reality and support Gary’s ambitious plans - I wish him every success with his latest venture.”

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