Luke Mangan eyes his future in a post-Glass world
Luke Mangan may have called time on Sydney eatery, Glass, but it’s not the end for the famed chef.
Mangan has been front and centre of Glass Brasserie at Hilton Sydney for 19 years and made the decision six months ago to find a new challenge.
“I’m certainly not going to slow down,” Mangan said.
“I’d like to see our airport restaurants in every city around the country because that has worked really well. Another 20 years in the business, maybe, I’m not sure. I am not the John Laws of the radio world, let’s put it that way.”
While Hilton Sydney will keep the name, head chef Natalie Murphy and sommelier Mauro Batolato, Mangan will be looking at a venture with a little bit more intimacy despite the 54-year-old’s business enterprise presiding over several restaurants across Sydney, including Luke’s Table on the pylon at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Luc-San in Potts Point and Luke’s Bistro & Bar at Sydney Domestic Airport.
Bistrot Bisou in Melbourne and an ongoing partnership with P&O Cruises also keep him busy.
Mangan told The Sunday Telegraph, “I was glad to stay that four years, and get through Covid, but I made this decision six months ago to be honest and that is how it came about I guess.
“When someone asks me about the restaurant business, I always say I take my hat off to anyone who can last a year to five years in business because it is such a tough [industry]. So to have it for 20, we’ve just been very lucky. It’s just an iconic location, a beautiful location but sometimes in life you have to make a decision and decide do you want to continue for another four, three, two, one years and maybe it’s time to move on and keep doing other things. I mean, it did take up a lot of my time.”
Mangan is not one to reflect too much, but he does have some stories to tell fromn his time with Glass.
“We’ve had people like James Packer, Baz Luhrmann, Elton John and Tony Bennett, Priscilla Presley, prime ministers current and past, premiers,” he said.
“We’ve been very lucky and I think that’s great, it is something we’ve worked hard to do and we achieved something.”
Of the difficulties facing the industry since the pandemic, Mangan says the past four years have been tough for all, but has weathered many storms.
“I was nearly broke in 2005 after we had a restaurant in Darlinghurst called Salt that was flavour of the month, the hottest restaurant in 2008.
“I think I expanded too quick (but) you learn by those mistakes as well and there’s been plenty of mistakes here, too many to mention. I’ve got incredible close friends in business and I always like to bounce ideas off and talk to them about things that I’ve done wrong or where I can improve and things like that.
“But restaurants are a tough business.”
Mangan can be seen at any one of his venues on a given night and won’t be resting too much in a post-Glass world.
“I like to be kept busy. I get bored easily.”
Jonathan Jackson, 18th November 2024
