It was a packed house in January 2018 when the original Broadway Langan’s was forced to close its doors after a long drawn-out battle with a landlord forced them to abandon ship. Everyone from Ray Kelly, who was still the Police Commissioner at the time, to legendary NY Post scribe Steve Dunleavy, who had retired to Florida, made the scene.
“I made some great friends at Langan’s over the years,” recalled O’Brien, who is from the town of Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland.
While sad to see the pub close after a 25-year run, in retrospect, O’Brien now acknowledges that it may have been a fortunate turn after all. “It was in need of a refresh, and there were things we could do, but there were things the landlord who controlled the infrastructure had to do that he was not going to do,” he said.
Aside from the pandemic, which ravaged restaurant businesses across the city in 2020, there was the added hassle of a major renewal effort afoot on West 47th, where all the buildings in an entire city block directly across the street were in the process of being torn down. “It turned into a construction zone,” he recalled, thankful now that he did not have to live through that.
The Evergreen Diner was demolished. So was the DoubleTree Hotel across the street. The block has since been rebuilt, just in time for the new Langan’s to open.
O’Brien, 65, arrived in the US in 1987 as a 22-year-old after graduating from Shannon College in Ireland and working briefly in Yorkshire, England, and Switzerland. “I just decided to wander over to the US and check it out. Been here ever since,” he said in a recent interview back at Langan’s. His first job in New York was working with the legendary Eamonn Doran as a maître d’ of the eponymously named pub on the East Side.
But like any barman, he had aspirations of opening his own place.
And through his friendship with John Mahon, who at the time owned the Pig ’n Whistle, Fiddler’s Green and P. J. Moran’s, he got the backing of the Mahon Hospitality Group to open the original Langan’s in 1993.
“It’s great to be back,” O’Brien said of his new place at 114 W. 47th St., a short distance from the first restaurant he owned on the block between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
He lives in Fairfield, Conn., with his wife, Amy; it’s where his three daughters, now in their 20s, grew up. But O’Brien says he’s not interested in opening a bar anywhere else but in his adopted home. “The New York City market is the one I know.”
He gets back to Ireland two to three times a year. “I go all over researching food and beverages, trying to get ideas to keep the old Irish tradition and culture,” he said. But he also acknowledges, “you have to stay with the times. Tradition only gets you so far.” For instance, he opened O’Brien’s on West 46th Street, but he has since changed it to a Mexican restaurant, Amor Loco, that has been drawing raves for its margaritas and tacos.
Perhaps the best testament to O’Brien comes from one of his long-time customers.
“Des has always been a welcoming host at all of his restaurants to all of the patrons,” said Eugenia Nolan, who was a concierge at the DoubleTree before it closed and now is a concierge at New York Hilton Midtown. “I will never forget how he treated everyone with respect and love. I will be going to the new Langan’s as much as I can, and always sending as many clients from my hotel.”
And she surely won’t be alone.
I just decided to wander over to the US and check it out. Been here ever since. --Des O’Brien