Ten years of dinners, one memorable room
We're a small team in a heritage Parkes building doing two things well — feeding people generously and hosting evenings worth staying for, including the hosted in-person poker nights the back room is known for.
From a ten-table grill to the room it is now
The building started life as a 1920s printer's workshop — brick, tall windows and a ceiling worth restoring. We opened with ten tables and a stubborn idea: dinner should feel like an occasion without asking you to whisper.
Ten tables, one grill and a borrowed coffee machine. The first menus were handwritten because the printer wasn't fixed yet.
We rebuilt the kitchen around live fire — ironbark, oak and a grill that changed how the whole menu tastes.
A quiet year pushed us to rethink the space: the old store room became the Back Room — private dinners first, hosted poker evenings soon after.
The Thursday social table found its crowd, and dinner-and-poker became the evening the venue is known for.
Recognition from the Good Food Guide and Canberra Weekly — the room got nicer, the welcome stayed the same.
What we believe about a night out
"Feed people properly, keep the room warm, and the rest — cards included — takes care of itself."
House manifesto, framed at the pass
Fire over fuss
Live flame, few ingredients, no theatrics on the plate. If the produce is right, the dish stays simple.
Hospitality first, always
The poker, the events, the wine list — everything sits behind how well the table is looked after.
Local isn't a slogan
Fourteen growers within a day-trip, a cellar that leans on Canberra district bottles, and a menu that follows the markets.
Nights should land softly
Good pacing, honest pricing, a bar that knows when to slow down — the best evenings end easy.
The people behind the pass and the tables
Marco Delacroix
Executive Chef
Fifteen years over live fire in Lyon and Melbourne. Writes the menu at the market each Tuesday.
Sarah Nguyen
General Manager
Runs the floor like a metronome — the reason pacing at Vividjoyline feels effortless.
Tom Beaumont
Head Poker Host
Dealt tournaments across three countries; now teaches first-timers why the river card isn't personal.
Elise Moreau
Sommelier
Keeps a 120-bottle cellar honest and finds the Canberra district bottles before the reviewers do.
Things we've built beyond the menu
The brick restoration
Six months of uncovering the original 1920s brickwork and steel trusses. The warm tones in the dining room today are all original — we just stopped hiding them.
- Original trusses exposed & restored
- Locally milled joinery throughout
The Charity Poker Classic
Our quarterly poker fundraiser has sent over A$60,000 to local causes since 2022 — entry fees go to the charity, the room covers the rest.
- A$60k+ raised for ACT charities
- Next edition on the events calendar
Chef residencies
Twice a year a guest chef takes the hearth for a week — menus collide, regulars get spoiled, and our kitchen keeps learning in public.
- 8 residencies hosted since 2021
- One-off menus you won't see twice
"Fire & Felt" — the house book
Forty hearth recipes, the story of the building and a chapter on hosting a poker night at home. Signed copies at the bar.
- 160 pages, clothbound
- Available at the venue — A$49
The numbers we're proud of
A decade in, the room does what it was built to do — and the stats below mostly mean people keep coming back for dinner and staying for the poker.
What the critics wrote
A few lines the team still passes around when a review lands.
"The rare restaurant where the room is as considered as the plate — and where a poker table somehow makes the evening better, not louder."
Canberra Weekly — 2025
"Dinner-and-cards sounds like a gimmick until you sit in the Back Room — it's the most civilised night out in Parkes."
The Food Ledger — review
Press, interviews or a media kit — write to vividjoyline@gmail.com.
Contact usThe room explains itself better than we can
Book dinner and stay for whatever the night offers — a quiet corner, the bar, or a seat at one of our hosted poker tables.