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Cruise ship singer swaps the stage for bar

A FORMER cruise ship singer has invested over £300,000 to open a luxury bar and cafe in the heart of Newcastle.

Mark Nigrelli spent years travelling the world and entertaining holiday makers on board luxury cruise liners.

But as he approached his 40th birthday, the dad of two felt it was time to settle down and decided to follow in his father’s footsteps into the hospitality industry.

Together with his partner Kelly Hynes, he bought former offices on Dean Street and with significant personal investment has completely transformed them into a 1920s-themed high end bar, complete with a cigar and whiskey lounge and a seated terrace area.

Mark, who lives in Durham, said: “I loved working as a cruise ship singer but I knew I couldn’t do it forever. My dad had run hotels and restaurants for a number of years so I was familiar with the industry, and decided that was what I wanted to do.

“I really felt that Newcastle was lacking a very high end, luxury bar, somewhere people could come for relaxing civilised drinks with waiter service. Yes, there are a lot of nice places to drink. But not at the level you find in other cities like London and Manchester.

“Kelly and I have invested around £300,000 to completely refurbish it, to get it to the standard we wanted, and we’ve also recruited eight members of staff, all of whom get a percentage of the profits that the business makes.

“My aim now is to establish a reputation in the corporate hospitality sector as I don’t think there’s anywhere quite like The Glass House in Newcastle. I am also planning to expand into Durham and further details will be announced about that in the coming months.”

The Glass House has recently introduced a light food menu and daytime cafe theme to broaden its appeal to city centre workers.

As a diabetic, he has also made it a priority to stock sugar free alternatives to the drinks sold, with £1 from every bottle going to Diabetes UK.

Mark added: “I’m a diabetic so I have to be careful what I drink, but equally there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to drink a fine champagne if I want to. I also have a lot of friends who are very conscious about what they drink and eat, and prefer sugar-free, low calorie alternatives. So we’ve been very selective with the products we source and our menu has been designed to appeal to everyone. We like to think our attention to detail and product expertise sets up apart from our competitors.” To find out more visit www.theglasshousenewcastle.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Leanne English .