Beaconsfield's O.My team to transform their bar into a bottleshop

Inching towards reopening their Beaconsfield garden-to-plate restaurant, O.My, after stage-four lockdown, brothers Chayse and Blayne Bertoncello realised their front bar would be too small to work as a dining space.

Instead, it will reopen in mid-November as Bertoncello Wine Merchants, a bottle shop and bar showcasing the Victorian wine, beer and spirit producers they've already built relationships with, plus a few "international producers that make sense" alongside the restaurant menu.

A communal table seating eight to 10 can be used for drinks and snacks or "wine conversations", and customers can browse and taste wine from the shelves, or buy it to take home.

Chayse plans to have about 100 wines under Coravin, the system that allows you to pour a glass without opening the bottle, and says staff will bring the same tableside manner to retail service as they offer in the two-hatted restaurant, with no "snooty formality" or upselling. He's aiming for the vibe of a good record store.

Ahead of reopening, the team expanded the Bertoncellos abundant kitchen garden, which supplies most of O.My's produce. They'll add a few tables on the verandah of the 1878 former post office for outdoor dining, too.