Manchester chef Gary Usher sparks debate on dogs being allowed in pubs

Celebrated chef and restauranteur Gary Usher has sparked a debate on whether dogs should be allowed in pubs with his latest restaurant announcement.

Usher, who owns acclaimed restaurants such as Kala in Manchester city centre, Hispi in Didsbury and Sticky Walnut in Chester, has confirmed that he is in the final stages of purchasing a derelict pub in Cheshire, which he will transform into his Elite Bistros group’s first ‘gastropub’.

Over the weekend, he took to social media to reveal that the pub in question is the old White Horse in Churton, with him tweeting: “I’m a terrible business person because I can’t keep my mouth shut when I’m excited. We are in the middle of buying the white horse pub in Churton but it’s not complete.

“I’ve always loved it there and it would be a dream for us to run it. The pub is beautiful and so is the area. My mum and dad live a few minutes away so I’m very familiar with the area and walking my dog Billy there with my mum and dad’s dog Rossa.”

Usher added that he is ‘absolutely aware’ of how much the White Horse pub means to the community in Churton, and said his plans for the pub aren’t to ‘rip it apart or change the way it looks’, but to serve ‘great drinks’ and ‘delicious unpretentious food by a team that love what they do’.

And, when one social media user asked if the pub would be dog friendly, Usher replied with a simple: “Of course!”

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However, despite the UK being a famously dog-loving nation, the confirmation of Usher’s new pub welcoming dogs didn’t sit too well with a lot of social media users, who were quick to slam the chef for his ‘bad idea’. 

One person wrote: “No thanks. Too many people thinking dogs in pubs is a good idea. Dogs are not people and shouldn’t be treated as such!”

Another even went as far to say they’d rather be ‘starving and crawl to the next normal restaurant’ on their knees, writing: “Thanks for the heads up. I’d rather be starving and crawl to the next normal restaurant on my knees than eat in a dog infested dump like yours. If you put animals before people god knows what you do in the kitchen!!”

However, Usher didn’t back down on his dog-friendly approach, with him replying to some of those opposing his view and telling them that dogs will be ‘treated like royalty’.

He wrote: “If you don’t like dogs in pubs I’d swerve coming to one of ours then. Dogs will be treated like royalty and I will probably most commonly be found rolling around the floor with them.”

And, responding to the social media user who had said they won’t be coming to his new pub, Usher sarcastically quipped: “You’re about 8 & a half hours away in a taxi love so I don’t think our survival was dependent on your fish & chips order but thank you for your lovely Saturday morning contribution [sic] X”.

Plenty of other people were pro dogs in pubs, however, with many pointing out that dogs are often more well behaved than their human counterparts.

One social media user wrote: “I have 3 cafes, I allow dogs in. I have barred humans but never a dog. What if dogs had their own Twitter what a great place that would be? The only thing they would be slagging off would be squirrels.”

Another said: “The majority of people in the country eat with dogs or cats in the room. I can’t talk though because I don’t like it if people let kids scream in a restaurant. (But I don’t stare or moan.)”

A third simply asked: “What even is a pub without a dog?”