Iconic Catalina restaurant gets set to celebrate 30th anniversary
Famed Sydney restaurant Catalina is set to celebrate its 30th birthday.
The venue was opened by Judy McMahon and late husband Michael in 1994.
Judy spoke with The Australian recently to recount some of the more memorable moments in the iconic restaurant’s history.
“He used to just walk through the dining room and if he noticed someone wasn’t eating their oysters the way he thought they should be, he would sometimes come over and say, ‘now I’ll just, if you don’t mind, I’ll just show you how’,” she said of her late husband’s interaction with customers.
“He couldn’t bear seeing someone destroy an oyster, so he took it upon himself. He was funny. Gosh, he was funny.”
“We always talked about getting him a badge that said, ‘I’m the owner of the restaurant’,” Judy’s daughter, Kate, chimed in.
Kate runs Catalina’s events.
Judy remembers when Michael ushered actor Sienna Miller through the kitchen to avoid paparazzi.
“Didn’t introduce himself or anything. Didn’t know who she was, really, other than the fact that she was so beautiful. Probably a deciding factor and why he was being so helpful,” Judy’s son James told The Australian.
James runs the restaurant’s floor as operations manager.
Michael passed away in 2020 and tributes from the Sydney hospitality community poured in.
“RIP Michael McMahon. Legend and wonderful mentor. Thank you for giving a young 25-year-old nobody an opportunity of a lifetime at Barrenjoey House in 1982,” Neil Perry said.
The restaurant has been well-loved since it opened and the family is determined to keep it at the top of the experience tree.
“Michael and I always believed that restaurateurs who actually work the dining room rather than cook in the kitchen actually have the opportunity to give a far more well-rounded experience,” Judy said.
“Food is extremely important, but service is every bit as important. And we’ve always been service oriented because Michael and I both worked the floor from the time we met each other. We worked at Berowra Waters Inn, we had Barrenjoey House, we worked at Bilson’s at Circular Quay.”
James said, “It’s part and parcel of ownership, right? To have the three people who own the joint working in it every single day and on the floor, it’s unusual. And
I think it means that there’s a level of care you don’t necessarily get everywhere else.”
To mark its 30th anniversary, Catalina will celebrate throughout 2024 with a range of events, having just completed an interior renovation.
Jonathan Jackson, 7th December 2023
