Quartz Bays — dinner and casino tables in a former ship chandlery
You will find Quartz Bays inside a former ship chandler's store on York Street, its stone walls a metre thick and its back room still shaped like the alcove where rope and canvas once hung. Four tables await you, a house dealer at each, five hundred and crib running most nights. Sit down, and the chips you are given are worth points, full stop — the granite outside is the same rock the bays take their name from, and about as far as the resemblance to a wagering floor goes.
A ship chandler kept these walls; a card room kept his counter
"The granite keeps its own temperature, whatever the harbour is doing outside," Frank Verran is said to have remarked of these walls, not long after he took over the old chandlery and found four card tables fit rather better than rope and canvas ever had.
You are welcomed into the same stone room today, a generation on from Verran's time: four felt-topped tables, a house dealer at each, and a small servery pouring tea, coffee and something cold rather than the tar and tinned stores the chandlery once sold. Nothing here is played online, and every chip you are handed is worth points only, never cash.
Frank Verran
Took over the chandlery and never did remove the old stone counter.
The building
Granite walls a metre thick, cut from the same stone as the coast.
The tables
Four felt tops, a house dealer at each, chips worth points alone.
What's on tonight behind the stone walls
The kitchen at Quartz Bays runs independently of the tables — a short menu, cooked fresh each evening.
For dinner: mushroom soup, then a roast beef plate.
For dessert, apple crumble with cream. A dinner-only table is booked separately.
Mushroom soup
To start.
Roast beef
With seasonal vegetables.
Apple crumble
With cream.
Quartz Bays in six frames
How the game goes, once you sit down
How does a hand actually begin once I sit down?
You take your seat, the house dealer shuffles and cuts the deck in view of the table, and the first cards are dealt within a minute or two.
Who decides what happens if two players disagree?
The house dealer's ruling settles it, every time; there is no appeal to a second table.
Can I change tables partway through the evening?
Yes — you are welcome to move between hands, provided the table you are leaving is not left short a player.
What happens to my chips if I stop playing for a break?
They remain at your seat; chips are never banked or exchanged for cash, whether you are playing or resting.
What Quartz Bays expects of everyone at the table
- You must be eighteen or over to enter; photo identification is checked at the door without exception.
- Chips represent points only, never cash; nothing here is exchanged for money, whichever way a hand ends.
- No online play, no app and no livestream are offered here — five hundred and crib are dealt at this address, and only at this address.
- The house dealer's ruling is final on any disputed hand, cut or shuffle.
- Seats are allocated first come, first served; please allow a table to fill before another one opens for the night.
- You are asked to keep your phone silent at the felt, and to step outside for any call that cannot wait.
The same six dates, most months
Five hundred opens the month
Crib and canasta
Euchre pairs
Bridge and mixed tables
Friendly poker, no buy-in
A regulars' night, all four tables
You will find us at the granite end of York Street
Location
145 York Street, Albany WA 6330
Contact
+61 8 9841 3684 · info@quartzbays.com
Session hours
Thursday to Monday, 5 pm – midnight
Four casino tables, and a dealer for each of them
You will find five hundred taking up most of a Monday, crib and canasta sharing Thursday, and by Saturday the room has usually settled into a slow game of bridge.
Staff handle the cards at every table you sit down to; your shuffle is never in question, and you are never left keeping your own tally.
On a Sunday, friendly poker runs with no buy-in required of you — the quietest table in the room, and often the friendliest.
Four tables
Set into the old stone alcove, one game each.
House dealt
Every hand shuffled and scored on your behalf.
No buy-in
Sunday's friendly table asks nothing of you.
Three things that hold true every night here
The room does not change much from one night to the next — the felt, the count and the close remain the same, whichever game happens to be running.
You are welcome at Quartz Bays this week
Four tables and a house dealer are open five nights a week — no booking is required, no app exists, and you will find no version of this room anywhere but 145 York Street.
+61 8 9841 3684
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