Restoring the old girl

In 2003 we made an impulse purchase which changed our lives. The National Trust listed, Gundaroo Pub had been for sale for two years. We use to drive past it every weekend when we were commuting from Sydney to the vineyard (our first vineyard which has since been sold).



I fell in love with the old building and we bought it with no real plan as to what to do with it. I can remember making some random comment that "it will make a great cellar door one day". So here we are, 8 years later, and the old girl is home to GRAZING, the award winning restaurant that we opened in October 2003, after 6 months of restoration works. Now, as we do more building work, to finally open that cellar door, I look back at some of the before and after photos of this magnificent old building.



The building has 5 huge open fireplaces. Visitors love the open fires and a seat by the fireplace is very hard to leave. People have come for lunch and stayed for dinner, too cosy to leave their fireside seat.





The dining rooms were once booth seating to cater to the masses of tourists that visited the Gundaroo Pub for raucous meals. Roo tail soup, damper and T-bones seem to have been the standard fare. In its day, I believe they served something like 80,000 T-Bones per year.





The back verandah and kitchen are about to undergo another major face lift with the latest building works.





I'm still in love with this old building and I am proud that we have been able to give it a new look and fill it with life - people enjoying great food, wine and the company of their friends and loved ones.

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