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2016
4 August 2016
Mudgee hotel sold for $4.05M
The Lawson Park Hotel in Mudgee has been sold for $4.05 million to an unnamed investor.
The Lantern Hotel Group sold the landmark hotel as part of the sale of its "non core" hotels, which so far has realised $43 million for the group.
The sale of the hotel at the corner of Church and Short Street attracted 57 enquirers.
Lantern Hotel Group CEO John Osborne said over the last three years, the Lantern Group has developed the Lawson Park Hotel into one of the state's leading regional hotel.
It is an award winning venue having won the prestigious Australian Hotels Association (AHA) Awards for:Best Casual Dining Country.
The value of the Lawson Park Hotel was underpinned by 15 gaming entitlements.
Gerry Quinlan of selling agent Manenti Quinlan & Associates said: "Even after 33 years as a broker it is a privilege to have had the opportunity to market such an outstanding asset.
'The Lawson Park Hotel is a complete business1 ."
2018
23 November 2018
Lawson Park Hotel’s Stefano, the best chef you know
Mudgee can now say it's home to the best pub chef in the state after Lawson Park Hotel's Stefano Burlando took out the 'Best Chef of the Year - Country' category at the 2018 Australia Hotel Association New South Wales (AHA NSW) Awards for excellence which was held in Sydney on Tuesday (November 20).
Stefano and Lawson Park Director and Licensee Tony Brown sat down with the Mudgee Guardian and told us about how a holiday beer led them to where they're at now.
"I just came to Mudgee for a holiday actually and came into the Lawson Park for a beer and a really good old friend of mine asked me "mate, do you want to take over a pub?" Tony said.
"I said no mate, I thought I was going to retire. He said 'nah, nah, give us a hand.' so I did and I was running this and two other pubs - and then we just fell in love with Mudgee and it came up for sale and we said 'we don't wanna go from Mudgee' so we bought it."
Stefano has been at the Lawson Park Hotel for four years and couldn't hold back his excitement when he heard their name read out.
"It was amazing, we jumped out of the table. We got to the finals last year but missed out." Stefano said.
"I think mostly this award is a reason to keep motivating my team. A reason to be a better leader and you know as well, sometimes it's difficult to push your guys that extra step. To achieve this award it was like 'see we're doing the right thing.'"
Tony has been in the industry long enough to see the drastic ways pub dining has evolved.
"I was the youngest licensee in NSW in 1977. In those days food serving in a hotel was sort of, pies, peas, sausage rolls and whatever." he said.
"Then we moved on to slop served in bain maries and whatever as a sideline and now dining is a major part of the hotel industry and the food industry in Australia."
"People expect restaurant quality at pub prices. People can't afford to go fine dining every night of the week. So we've got a real pace in society now. I think this will be the dominant thing in the next twenty years. It can't be replaced by technology, that's the great thing about the industry."
"I take my hat off to Stefano and the boys in the kitchen, they've worked unbelievably hard to get here. Some long days and long shifts. They're a happy team which is most important."
It wasn't just the Lawson Park Hotel representing Mudgee at the awards night.
While not located in Mudgee, the winner of 'Best Bush Hotel' went to the Armatree Hotel located approximately 50kms north of Gilgandra which is managed by husband and wife duo, Ashley and Libby Walker who hail from Mudgee.
Ashley spoke to the Mudgee Guardian about what it takes to win such a prestigious accolade for a relatively small hotel.
"Armatree's a pretty iconic rural location. It's a small rural village of about 40 residents," he said.
"As a hotel we run a very diverse business. Hospitality, the beer trade and we do a number of weddings every year and on top of that we hold concerts, some of which have had in excess of 500 people attend."
"There's three or four generations of the Walker's in Mudgee now and about twelve years ago my wife and I (Libby) bought the Armatree Hotel."
"We were finalists in 'Hotel of the Year - Country' and we were also a finalist in 'Individual Hotel Operator of the Year." In the 'Hotel of the Year' category, we were competing against hotel's from places like Newcastle, Tamworth, Bathurst and Wagga.
"We're over the moon and it's incredibly humbling to win the award. We really want to dedicate the award to two groups. The first is our region. It's the community support that we get that makes our business so successful." Ashley said2 .