Dunkeld's Royal Mail Hotel to open another restaurant

What do you do after creating the country's largest working restaurant kitchen gardens, and assembling a wine list as deep as the ocean? Open another restaurant, of course.

In spring, the Royal Mail Hotel will open Wickens at the Royal Mail Hotel on businessman Allan Myers' property in Dunkeld, on the southern tip of Victoria's Grampians.

The hotel already has a two-hatted restaurant, a wine bar, a casual bistro and luxury accommodation. Not bad for a town with a population of 461 in the last census.

The new space, with views of landmark Mount Sturgeon, will become the hotel's fine dining restaurant, a showcase for the organic produce grown in the hotel's garden, and beef and lamb from its farms.

The fitout will use local materials, including wool from Myers' flock, and make a feature of some of the hotel's 30,000-strong wine collection, says Robin Wickens, who took over from Dan Hunter, now of Brae, in 2013.

Parker Street Project, the former bottleo-turned-bistro, will take over the current dining room, with a Josper oven going into the kitchen during the refit.

Wickens at the Royal Mail Hotel is expected to open in October.