Balmoral's Awaba Cafe reborn as Beach House by GPO

A go-to Sydney summer staple for many years, Mosman's Awaba Cafe has a new name and a new owner.

The Balmoral Beach cafe, which set a design standard in the early years of the harbour city's cafe boom, has been snapped up by the big end of town.

Peter Petroulas, who owns a stable of city restaurants at GPO, including Prime and Intermezzo, has renamed the cafe Beach House by GPO.

The restaurateur says he wasn't put off by its diminutive size compared with the rest of his empire, believing it has great potential.

And Petroulas has some big plans to update it this year.

Changes have already taken place in the menu, which is now mostly Italian.

Petroulas says the kitchen has some talent, with Fabrizio Cavallini, a fine-dining chef who worked at Michelin-starred restaurant La Frasca in Milan, and Elisa Gorgia, who spent time in the kitchen of GPO's city restaurant Intermezzo.

Petroulas says the duo share the head chef role at Beach House by GPO, where customers now tuck into eggplant napoletana and risotto with prawns, calamari and snapper.