2022built
The card room
Three tables, hosted games, a dealer on every night. The poker room that grew out of one borrowed case of chips, and still the thing people drive up from Dunedin for.
Thu–Sat from 7pmPoker nights
About us · 1 Esplanade, South Hill
The story of
Happy Daydreams
The story of Happy Daydreams is short and a bit accidental: an old kiosk on the Oamaru waterfront that became a restaurant, and then grew a social poker room out the back.
How we got here
From kiosk to card room
Nothing about this place was planned much past the next season. It grew the way the best rooms do: one good idea at a time, usually suggested by somebody eating at it.
Autumn 2019
The kiosk keys
We took over an old kiosk space by the water at the South Hill end of the Esplanade. The plan was coffee by day and a few plates after five, mostly so our friends had somewhere warm to end up.
Winter 2020
The oven went in
A wood-fired oven and a real bench changed what the kitchen could do. Blue cod and ribeye replaced the toast menu, and we started doing the produce runs up to Totara ourselves.
Spring 2021
Chips on the table
A Tuesday regular walked in carrying a case of poker chips and asked if anyone fancied a game after dessert. Enough people did. We kept a corner table free for it most weeks after that.
Winter 2022
The back room
The storeroom out back became the card room: three tables, real felt, a dealer running a proper game. The poker stopped being a happy accident and started being a roster.
Now
Same building, bigger evenings
Dinner Wednesday to Sunday, poker Thursday to Saturday, a producer long table once a month. The harbour still does the view out front, and the penguins still clock off past the door.
Est. 2019
South Hill
South Hill
Why the name?
It was written on a napkin the night we signed the lease. Nobody remembers who wrote it, which feels about right for this place.
Est.
2019
2019
What we believe
Feed people well and the rest follows
Every call we make here starts with the plate. If the food's honest and the room's warm, people stay, and when people stay long enough they end up talking to the table next to them. That's the whole business model, really. Even the poker table still works like a dining table: you sit down with strangers and stand up with people you know.
- Cook over fire, buy from people we can name
- Write the menu after the market run, not before
- Deal poker the way we'd want it dealt at our own kitchen table
- Keep the bar open till the room's done talking
The track record
A small room with some miles on it
We don't keep a trophy shelf. The numbers below are the ones that actually shape a night here, plus a few things the regulars won't let us change.
HD
0
seats across 3 poker tables
0
wines by the glass
0
market runs a week
0
the year we got the keys
A Saturday waitlist
The Saturday poker tournament fills a few days out most weeks now. For a card room that began as one corner table, we still find that odd and lovely.
The toastie clause
We rotated the late cheese toastie off the menu once. The regulars staged a polite revolt and it came back the same week, permanently.
Guests who became staff
Two of the floor team started as Wednesday dinner regulars. The person who hosts the card room was a Thursday player first.
Our team
The faces you'll actually meet
It's a small crew and nobody hides in an office. Whoever answers the phone is probably in this grid, and whoever seats you has definitely eaten the menu.
Ren
Head chef
Came up through Dunedin kitchens, cooks everything over fire, and refuses to write down the chowder recipe.
Mo
Card room host & dealer
Runs the poker nights Thursday to Saturday and will have your usual seat sorted before you ask.
Sadie
Front of house & wine
Built the NZ-led wine list and will calmly talk you into the North Canterbury pinot.
Dan
Owner, general fixer
That's me. I hold the lease, do the Totara runs, and lose politely at our own poker tables.
Plus a bench of kitchen and bar staff who keep the whole thing upright. You'll meet them on the night.
Things we've built
Our running projects
The building itself hasn't changed much since the kiosk days. What we keep building is the stuff that happens inside it.
2021built
The late supper menu
Plates built to travel between hands: terrine, oysters, the toastie with its own fan base. Runs till close.
After 9pmThe menu
2023built
The producer long table
Once a month the kitchen builds five courses around a single Waitaki grower or winemaker's crate, served at one long table. The felt sleeps through it.
MonthlyEvents
2024built
The midweek quiz
We started a community quiz to fill the quiet off-season Wednesdays. It got loud fast and now there's a trophy nobody wants to give back.
Off-season WednesdaysAsk us
Around the place
Bits of the building we like
All taken in the room or on the Esplanade, mostly by staff who should have been clearing tables.
Who we buy from
Dinner has an address list
Most of what lands on a plate here travelled less than an hour. These are the runs and the people behind them.
The monthly producer dinner grew straight out of this list — details live on the events page.
Wed–Sun
from 5pm
from 5pm
Come see what
we've been building
Dinner Wednesday to Sunday, social poker Thursday to Saturday, and the kettle basically always on. You'll find us at 1 Esplanade, South Hill, Oamaru — the warm windows on the waterfront.
Ring +64 9 352 8417 or write to happydaydreams@gmail.com — a person answers both.