Chef entrepreneur’s crowdfunding campaign hits £50k target in 60 minutes

A crowdfunding campaign launched by chef entrepreneur Gary Usher has raised five figures in just 60 minutes.

Gary will use the £50k investment, secured through Kickstarter, to open a new restaurant in Prescot, Merseyside.

Pinion will be his fifth eatery, following the launch of Wreckfish in Liverpool last year.

Ahead of the Kickstarter campaign, Gary drummed up interest through a series of short teaser videos posted on social site Twitter.

In the first 15 minutes, over 200 backers contributed £16k. That figure rose to £31,405 after half an hour and reached the £50k target in 60 minutes. 660 backed the campaign.

Gary said: “Looking in on this it could look quite nuts, but this Kickstarter didn’t (although technically, it actually did) just happen overnight.

“I don’t think it’s as simple as saying ‘oh I’m going to kickstart a restaurant’. A lot of our supporters have been with us for years, and we really feel as if we’ve opened our last three restaurants together.”

He continued: “I said I wanted this crowdfunding to be completely transparent so that it was a recipe that anyone could then just take and replicate somewhere else. But I think I was wrong. There’s no recipe. There’s no handbook. It’s about the people that support and believe in you.”

The Pinion menu will offer freshly baked bread and bistro dishes such as a beef braise with truffle, parmesan chips and a dessert of classic tart.

Gary’s other restaurants are Sticky Walnut in Chester, Burnt Truffle in Heswall, Hispi in Manchester and Wreckfish in Liverpool.