Katoomba, Blue Mountains
Wollemi Hall: a Parke Street dining room with a casino room upstairs
Dinner comes first at Wollemi Hall: pies, soups and slow roasts from the kitchen at 74 Parke Street, served from five in the afternoon, Tuesday to Sunday. Upstairs, a casino room opens at half past six with two roulette wheels, two blackjack tables and two poker tables, all played on chips that carry no money value and are never sold. There is no online play and no app; everything happens in person, for guests aged 18 and over. A table for dinner and a seat in the casino room are booked separately, so please say which of the two you would like.
Parke Street
The house at the station end of Parke Street
From the footpath on a winter evening the first thing you notice is the windows: amber glass on the ground floor, green lamplight above, and the warm breath of the kitchen fans in the cold air. The last commuter train has gone through, the mist is sitting low over the road, and Parke Street has settled into its quiet hour. This is the moment the hall was built for.
My name is Darren Barnes and I manage Wollemi Hall. I begin with the street because the street explains the house. Parke Street runs from the railway station past the shopfronts that serve the town in daylight, and after six it belongs to whoever is still awake: shift workers, walkers back from the cliff paths, families looking for dinner.
Our neighbours matter to me. The bookshop two doors along keeps late hours on Fridays, the baker across the road is already working when our cleaners arrive, and the florist lends us tall vases whenever a long table is booked. A dining room in a town of this size succeeds only if the people nearby are glad to see its lights.
The ground floor is the dining room, with a slow-combustion heater, a long window onto the street and a kitchen that bakes its own pastry. The first floor is the casino room: roulette, blackjack and poker, on chips with no cash value, among guests who have mostly just eaten. There are no pokies and no gaming machines anywhere in the building.
Please treat the two floors as separate invitations. Many guests come for dinner and never climb the stairs, and that is exactly as it should be. Others book a seat at the tables and take a plate of something warm before the first hand. Either way, the house is open from five in the afternoon, and I am usually at the foot of the stairs.
From the stove
Pies, soups and roasts for a cold evening
Clayton Richards, our head chef, cooks for the weather. In the mountains that means a pumpkin and sage soup served with warm damper, shortcrust pies filled with slow-cooked beef or chicken and leek, and a lamb shoulder that spends most of the afternoon in the oven. Apples come from the orchards at Bilpin, and the puddings are the old kind.
Nothing on the menu is clever for its own sake. A plate arrives hot, generous and plainly seasoned, with vegetables from the market growers on the highway. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate and lemonade are poured all evening, and there are scones with jam and cream until the kitchen closes.
Pies from the oven
Beef and mushroom, chicken and leek, baked each afternoon.
Soup with damper
Pumpkin and sage, made fresh, served with warm bread.
Puddings
Sticky date, apple crumble and lamingtons on the board.
Find the door
Parke Street, near the railway station
Address
74 Parke Street, Katoomba NSW 2780
Telephone and email
+61 2 4782 6314 · bookings@wollemihall.com
Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday, 17:00 – 23:30
About the house
Questions about how the house runs
Why does the hall keep such short evenings?
Tuesday to Sunday, from 17:00 to 23:30, suits the town. Parke Street is quiet late on weeknights, the kitchen can keep its standard, and the staff are rested. Mondays are for the oven to cool and the lamps to be cleaned.
Who deals at the tables?
Noel Novak is our croupier and leads the casino room. He deals roulette and blackjack himself and trains every other dealer in the house, so the pace and the manners are the same at every table, whichever one you choose.
What can be played, and for what?
Roulette, blackjack and poker (Texas Hold'em and Omaha) are dealt on chips without money value. Nothing is staked, nothing is won, and nothing is offered online. A tournament night ends with a name on the honour board.
How noisy does the house become?
Dinner is a murmur, and the casino room is quieter still. Music stays low, the heater ticks, and conversation at the tables is hushed. If a guest prefers a corner away from the wheels, the host will find one.
Under the lamps
A six-table casino room, quiet by design
Upstairs, six tables sit under brass lamps with green shades: two roulette wheels, two blackjack tables and two poker tables, where Texas Hold'em and Omaha are dealt. Every game is played on chips. The chips have no money value, cannot be bought or sold, and stay in the room at the end of the night.
There are no wagers of any kind, no cash prizes and no gaming machines. Visitors are welcome to watch before they sit, and our croupier, Noel Novak, is glad to explain a game from the first spin. The room is for adults aged 18 and over, and identification is checked at the top of the stairs.
Roulette
Two wheels, spun gently, with a short lesson at the first spin.
Blackjack
Two tables for quiet hands and friendly conversation.
Poker
Texas Hold'em and Omaha, played on chips with no cash value.
Around the hall
The hall in six pictures
House rules
Eight rules for the whole house
- Everyone in the casino room must be 18 or over, and photo identification is checked at the top of the stairs.
- Chips are counters without cash value; they cannot be bought, sold, exchanged or taken home at the end of the night.
- One voice speaks for each hand at a time, and the croupier's ruling at the table is final for that round.
- Mobile phones stay in pockets at the tables; calls are taken on the landing, where the signal is better anyway.
- Cards and chips stay on the table, and chips are never passed between players.
- Dinner guests may watch from the rail, but only seated players handle cards and chips.
- Photographs of other guests are not taken without asking them first.
- Anyone may step away from a table at any time, without needing to give a reason.
One evening
How an evening runs, hour by hour
Doors openThe dining room opens, the heater is lit and the first tables are seated.17:00
Dinner serviceThe kitchen runs at full pace until half past nine.17:30
Casino room opensCroupiers take their places and the lamps upstairs are switched on.18:30
Table playRoulette, blackjack and poker run on chips, with a short lesson at the first table.19:30
Last ordersThe kitchen takes its final orders; tea, coffee and puddings carry on.21:30
Tables closeThe last hand is dealt at ten to eleven and the chips are counted back into the rack.23:00
Doors closeThe hall empties gently and Parke Street goes quiet again.23:30
Evening tides
A table for every kind of evening
The hall follows the evening the way the valley follows the cloud: quiet at first, fuller by eight, and still again by closing.
Tide table
- Low watera quiet room and a seat anywhere
- Flooddinner filling the room, tables taking shape
- High waterevery chair taken, the wheels turning
- Ebbtea, a last hand, the street quiet
Times follow the house clock
Booking
Reserve your evening
Tell us whether you are coming for dinner, for the casino room, or for both, and how many will be at the table. Chloe Gardner answers every request personally.
+61 2 4782 6314