Kyneton Bistrot to re-open with new owners

Annie Smithers' Bistrot in Kyneton has been sold. The eight-year-old restaurant that maintained one hat in The Age Good Food Guide for seven consecutive years will close on Mother's Day, May 12.

The new owners are husband-and-wife team Tim and Michelle Foster, who hope to reopen by the end of May.

Tim was most recently executive chef of The Healesville Hotel group, and before that was head chef at Hollick's winery in Coonawarra, where he grew up. Michelle is a qualified chef who is now a front-of-house manager.

The couple are retaining the name Annie Smithers' Bistrot and will make small changes to the decor and staff. But Foster says they want to create a restaurant that is "very much about being hospitable, a well-received country restaurant".

Smithers is pleased with the sale, "it couldn't go to two better people", she says, and is enthused about her next move, to Trentham to run the kitchen of her cafe du Fermier.

Smithers will offer a limited menu, and plans to open Thursday-Sunday from 10am to 4pm, "for breakfast, lunch and cake", and on Friday and Saturday nights it will be open for dinner from 6pm.