A restaurant that
keeps a roulette wheel
Outback Bistro opened in 2011 inside a 1911 bakery on Todd Mall — and never stopped being improbable. Today it is a dining room, a boutique casino, a cellar of ten thousand bottles and a hidden speakeasy, run by the same family that fired the first ovens.
From bakery ovens
to the gaming floor
The Holloway family bought the brick shell in 2009 with a plan for a quiet grill room. The plan changed when they found the building's original cold cellar — a vaulted brick gallery that begged to be a wine vault. The vault begged for a bar. The bar, eventually, begged for a roulette wheel.
Licensing took two years and one memorable council meeting, but by 2014 the Salon Privé was dealing its first hands. The restaurant never became an afterthought: chef Amelia Rowe's tasting menus and the Josper grill card are the reason most guests arrive — the tables are simply where the evening goes next.
Today the house employs fifty-eight people, hosts four gala nights a year and still bakes the daily bread in the original wood oven.
1911 — The Bakery
The brick shell and wood oven are built on Todd Mall.
2011 — First Service
Outback Bistro opens with eleven tables and a forty-bottle list.
2014 — The Licence
Northern Territory gaming licence granted; the Salon Privé opens.
2023 — The Vault
The cellar crosses ten thousand bottles; the speakeasy room is revealed.
“We run the room we would want to find after a long drive through the desert.”
Ten thousand bottles
below the gaming floor
The vault registry tracks every vintage by year and condition — from 1963 Grange to single-vineyard Clare Valley rieslings. A private sommelier can be summoned to any table, including the felt.
- 1963 Penfolds Grange — registry № 0041, two bottles remaining.
- 1982 Salon Le Mesnil — held for Salon Privé tastings.
- 1990 Château d'Yquem — poured by the glass on request.
- Macallan 30 and Glenfiddich 40 anchor the spirits armoire.
2008 Henschke Hill of Grace
Eden Valley shiraz at peak — one bottle per evening, decanted forty minutes before service. Ask your sommelier for the vault ledger.
The wheel decides
what you taste
Eight seats around the pass. Before each course the chef spins a brass wheel of seasonal ingredients — the result dictates the plate. Guests may wager a guess; a correct call earns a pour from the chef's private shelf.
- Seven courses, ninety minutes, one wheel — no menu is printed.
- The room seats eight; the full table can be bought out privately.
- Dietary notes are taken at booking — the wheel adapts, never repeats.
“A menu tells you what I want to cook. The wheel tells you what the season wants you to eat.”
Dinner inside
the wine vault
Beneath the dining room, behind a door most guests walk past, sits the cellar table — one slab of blackbutt timber for twelve guests, surrounded by ten thousand bottles and lit by candles in the brick arches.
The format is fixed: seven courses, each paired from the vault around you, with the chef plating at the table and a private craps layout available between courses for parties who book the gaming add-on.
It is the most requested room in the house — book through the concierge desk at least two weeks ahead.
The soundtrack
of the felt
Resident trios play the dining room Thursday through Sunday — standards early, harder swing once the pit gets loud.
The Velvet Trio
Thursday 20:00 — brushed drums, upright bass and the room's resident vocalist, M. Okafor.
Desert Swing
Friday–Saturday 21:30 — a five-piece with brass, timed to the cabaret intermission.
Late Set
Sunday 19:00 — quiet sessions for the late crowd; requests taken at the piano.
A table by the stage?
Stage-side banquettes are released 72 hours ahead and go first to members.
A museum that
serves dinner
The hallways between the dining room and the pit hold a rotating exhibition of Central Australian artists — dot paintings, sculpture and one very heavy bronze wheel commissioned for our tenth anniversary.
Pieces are for sale through the concierge; the gallery card changes with each hang. An audio guide runs on the house channel — ask for a headset at the cloakroom.
The quiet room
after the last hand
Past the pit, a cedar-lined salon holds the house humidor — Cuban and Dominican stock kept at 69% and 18°C, with a cognac armoire that runs from VSOP to a 1958 Hardy Noces d'Or.
The Fireplace Wing
Six armchairs around a slow combustion fire, a backgammon table and a butler's bell that actually works. Seating by reservation after 22:00.
- Humidor tour with the duty sommelier — 15 minutes, complimentary.
- Pairing flight: three cigars matched to three cognacs, A$140.
- Private lockers available to Gold members and above.
A banquet hall
with a craps table
The Secret High-Limit Suite is a self-contained floor: a banquet table for twelve, its own craps layout and dealer, a sound-proofed lounge and a private entrance off the lane. It is booked whole, by the evening.
Corporate tables, wedding after-parties and milestone birthdays make up most of the calendar. The suite's butler runs the full service list — from Josper platters to a dedicated cage float.
- Twelve dining seats, two gaming positions, own entrance.
- Acoustic rating keeps the room silent to the rest of the house.
1968 Seppeltsfield Para Tawny
Single-vintage fortified, bottled for our centenary cellar. Opening bid A$950 — registered bidders only.
Vintage cognac,
sold by the gavel
Four nights a year the dining room hosts a seated auction of rare spirits and humidor stock — paddles, a bonded auctioneer and a tasting pour for every lot.
- Catalogues released to members ten days before the floor.
- Bidder registration at the cage; paddles are complimentary.
- All lots carry cellar provenance and condition reports.
Hold'em with
small plates
The poker room runs nightly Texas Hold'em and Friday Omaha — dealt by professionals, served by a kitchen that understands you cannot put down cards and cutlery at once.
Hold'em · A$2/5
From 20:00 · buy-in A$200–1,000
Omaha Hi-Lo · A$5/10
From 21:00 · buy-in A$500–2,000
Finger-Food Flights
Menus designed for one hand: skewers, tartlets, bite-size bao and the house shot list — served on felt-safe trays between hands.
Take a SeatWhat the critics
filed
“A serious kitchen with a mischievous streak — the blind-bet omakase alone justifies the airfare to Alice.”
“The rare casino that treats silence as a luxury good. The Salon Privé might be the Territory's best-kept room.”