What Gary Usher's Closure Really Says About Hospitality in 2025

Just like that, quietly, immediately, and with the kind of honesty we’ve come to expect from one of the UK’s most outspoken restaurateurs.

The Manchester city-centre bistro, which sat proudly on King Street for six years, is no more. And while the closure came with a heartfelt message and promises to support staff and honour bookings, it still lands hard, for hospitality, for Manchester, and for anyone who knows what it takes to keep a restaurant alive in 2025.

Usher said trade was down by 50%. Devastating.

In his own words, “That is the killer.” Because even when the food is great, the reviews are strong, and the team is solid, if people aren’t coming through the doors, the maths just doesn’t work.

Rent still needs paying. Staff still need wages. Suppliers still need honouring. Kala had history, loyalty, and real community backing. It was crowdfunded into existence and built on guts and graft. But it still couldn’t survive the pressures we’re seeing all across the industry.

And those pressures aren’t out of the ordinary, they’re everywhere.

Between December 2023 and November 2024, nearly 3,800 pubs, clubs, and restaurants went under in England and Wales alone.

In the final quarter of 2024, hospitality venues were closing at a rate of more than eight per day.

Not because the food wasn’t good enough, or the branding wasn’t clever enough, but because the overheads keep rising, and consumer habits have fundamentally changed.

With fewer people commuting into city centres every day, footfall has dropped. At the same time, utility costs remain high, staffing is more expensive, and employers are dealing with rising national insurance contributions.

Meanwhile, 78% of UK diners say eating out has become too expensive to do regularly.

Even among new openings, the numbers are shocking. Over 4,000 hospitality venues closed last year, and around the same number opened.

But this isn’t stability. For every fresh concept that launches, there’s a long-loved local shutting its doors. Independents are caught in a brutal cycle of high ambition and high risk, where even a loyal customer base might not be enough to break even.

Gary Usher knows all this.

His Elite Bistro group is about as real as it gets, Sticky Walnut in Chester, Hispi in Didsbury, Wreckfish in Liverpool.

These are restaurants that value taste and service over spectacle.

He’s built a following not just for his food but for his transparency, often lifting the lid on the true, unvarnished cost of running a hospitality business.

That’s what makes Kala’s closure so significant. If someone like Usher, with all his experience, profile, and community support, can’t make a central city bistro work in 2025, then we have to start asking bigger questions.

How many more will follow? How much are we willing to lose before we rethink the system? How many beloved places need to disappear before there’s meaningful change in how hospitality is supported, taxed, and valued in this country?

Because restaurants like Kala aren’t just places to eat. They’re part of the texture of our cities. They make up our memories, birthdays, first dates, lazy Sunday lunches. And when they go, it’s not just a business loss, it’s a cultural one.

The good news? Usher has vowed to keep going. The rest of his venues remain open. The team is being looked after. And he’s even covering valid vouchers at other locations.

That kind of integrity is rare, and it deserves support.

So if you loved Kala, or even just admired it from afar, the best way to show that love now is to turn up somewhere else. Book a table. Leave a tip. Tell a friend. Because hospitality isn’t just about survival, it’s about connection. And right now, it needs all the connection it can get.

If you care about the future of hospitality and want to be part of the change, check out what we’re building at Hospitality Hero HQ, visit our website to get tickets to our next event!

https://www.thehospitalityhero.com/