A building that spent a century watching the water, three years empty, and eighteen months of us pulling lining boards off the walls.
Since 2022
What was under the lining boards
Bluestone to knee height, then hardwood, then a hundred years of paint. We stopped stripping when we hit the layer the last keeper put on and left it at that.
The lens came back from a shed in the country where it had been propped against a tractor. It is not ours in any legal sense — it is on loan, and the paperwork says so.
The store shed at the back had no roof left, so the card room is genuinely new work under an old skin. That is the only part of the building we invented.
68 seats
Across the dining end and the two window tables.
Six tables
In the back room, on their own rhythm.
Five staff
Kitchen and floor, most nights all five are on.
The building
Things people ask about the place
Is the lens real?
It is, and it is on loan — please do not lean on the case.
Can I read the watch logs?
Take one to your table. They live on the shelf by the door.
Is the back room accessible?
Level entry from the side lane, and one table is set for a wheelchair.
Do you do functions?
The back room, on a Sunday evening, for up to thirty.
Are you over 18?
Salona is a licensed venue for adults — a coast kitchen and a card room, both 18 and over.
