Photo prompts memories of Wellington bar

An old photo of waitresses has jogged memories of sheepskin seat covers and mini skirts in one of Wellington’s first family restaurants.

An old picture of waitresses on opening night of The Woolshed on the Plimmer Steps, dated 1972, found its way into the newsroom.

Social media filled in the gaps, and a clearer picture emerged of one of Wellington’s first family restaurants, complete with sheep pens and sheepskincovered seats.

Band member Bill Brown commented on the Neighbourly post, and was able to provide another picture of his band, which played there for years.

‘‘There were three levels of establishments in what was then the Williams building.’’

‘‘I was the drummer in the first band at the Woolshed, from opening night for three to four years.’’

He recognised one of the waitresses, Libby, by name all these years later.

And Libby Kemp, who still lives in Wellington, saw the picture on Neighbourly, and it brought back memories of her time as a waitress and cashier there, part-time on top of her day job.

Steven Petty was the manager, she said, and Arthur Williams Jr was the son of the owner, and both were around a lot.

The restaurant was laid out with two long tables in the middle, with smaller ‘‘sheep pen’’ tables around the outside.

There were two sessions for dinner, first at 6pm then again at 8pm, serving food from a classic steakhouse menu to prawn cocktails, curry and rice, and fish.

The waitresses were all ‘‘pretty girls’’, dressed for the lunch shift in outfits that were ‘‘very Little Bo Peep-y’’ and for the dinner rush in mini skirts.

Most came from other jobs during the day for the night shifts as a second source of income.

Kemp said the sheep pen she was in charge of waiting on was close to the stage, which would be why Brown remembered her.

The restaurant was the first of its kind, oriented towards family outings rather than fine-dining.

‘‘It was a pretty classy restaurant,’’ Kemp said.

The waitresses were friends, and had some good times there. Kemp said she went to Sandra’s wedding even after they’d both left the Woolshed.

One evening, Kemp remembered with a jolt that she’d left the iron on at home, and the girls covered for her while she ran home to turn it off, and they did such a good job nobody noticed she was gone.

The waitresses on opening night at the Woolshed, in 1972, as remembered by waitress Libby Kemp, from left: Sandra, sisters Penny and Sandi, singer Yolande Gibson’s sister, Libby herself, and the rest unknown.