Chef Jo Barrett opens Little Picket at Lorne Bowls Club

Award-winning chef Jo Barrett has put down roots in Lorne, moving to the Victorian coastal town to run the bar and restaurant at the local bowls club, where she'll highlight humble country hospitality fused with small local producers.

"The bowls club is traditionally known as a community place; we're not going to change that," says Barrett. "We're going to cook food and serve drinks from the local area, so people visiting get a sense of what the Great Ocean Road is about."

Affordable and approachable are the buzz words at Little Picket, which opens August 20. Snacks through to weekly changing mains are familiar classics given an edge by the quality of produce Barrett and her team are selecting.

Barrett's partner, craft beer professional David Osgood, will run the club's bar, and best friend Louise Daily is cooking alongside Barrett. Daily previously worked with Barrett at Yarra Valley winery restaurant Oakridge, and at Joost Bakker's Future Food System at Fed Square.

Their opening menu includes potato cakes served with house-made fromage blanc cheese, and Portarlington mussel bouillabaisse with rouille. Dessert is an evolving buffet of sponge cake, lemon tart and ginger pudding with whey caramel that guests will walk into the kitchen to browse and order directly from Barrett and Daily.

She'll build the menu around local produce such as Yan Yan Gurt lamb and Otways Pork, joined by homegrown greens, herbs, garlic and other veg. Barrett and Osgood have planted a patch nearby as well as a farm at Deans Marsh, about 20 minutes inland.

"It's different to what I've done in the past but I'm looking forward to having a purpose of cooking for people rather than feeding my ego and cooking fancy food," says Barrett.

Since leaving Oakridge, which has its own kitchen garden, in 2020, the chef, who champions sustainable cooking practices, lived and cooked at self-sufficient house Future Food System in 2020 and 2021, before a brief stint in Byron Bay and five months working on Flinders Island.

The Lorne bowls club has an active and passionate membership who have welcomed the trio, after two years of the kitchen being closed due to COVID-19. The bar and restaurant will operate around bowls tournaments and barefoot bowls sessions. Hours will expand as the weather warms up.

Open for dining Fri-Sat 5.30pm-9pm, Sun 11.30am-3pm.

35 Mountjoy Parade, Lorne, 03 5289 1462, littlepicket.com.au