Controversial hospo icon Julian Gerner calls last drinks on 30-year career

Hospitality stalwart Julian Gerner is selling his Sorrento restaurant and bar, Morgans Restaurant and Bar.

After 30 years in the industry, Gerner is calling time on his long and storied career having overseen Melbourne’s best nightspots.

“Essentially after 30 plus years and a long undistinguished and chequered career, I’m hanging up the boots,” Gerner told The Herald Sun.

Garner was also famous for launching a High Court challenge to Victorian Premier Dan Andrews’ strict lockdown laws which he said were unconstitutional.

The case was deemed invalid, but Gerner, who started his hospitality career in the 1980s on Mornington’s beaches, gained the attention he sought.

Gerner worked his way up through the ranks, including at notable venues Silvers and Chevron and then proceeded to turn the Melbourne pub scene on its head.

Along with the Ryan family as part of the Melbourne Pub Group, Gerner bought up old venues and reinvented them for modern tastes as sophisticated one stop bars and restaurants. 

Venues to receive a facelift included Royal Saxon, Newmarket Hotel, Albert Park Hotel and Public House.

“Richmond was just Dimmeys and $2 shops. We put Public House in there and it ignited a fire. Now if you walk down Swan St it is a hospitality mecca,” Gerner said. “It was a game changer.”

Gerner split with Melbourne Pub Group when he sought a sea change and returned to the peninsula.

“I’ll just quietly fade away into the sunset,” he told The Herald Sun. “I’m okay with that.”

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