Hatted restaurant O.My reopens in bigger premises in Beaconsfield

Beaconsfield locals have been begging the Bertoncello brothers to open a wine bar to complement their two-hatted, perennially booked, farm-to-table restaurant O.My since it opened six years ago. So when the opportunity came to relocate from the one-time butcher's shop into the much larger former post office next door, they took it.

The new O.My restaurant opens this Thursday after a 10-week renovation but the wine bar, which occupies the front room, has already been open for six weeks. Chayse Bertoncello, the restaurant's sommelier says they've been turning away "50-60 people a night. In Beaconsfield".

The move has allowed Chayse and head chef Blayne Bertoncello to rethink the kitchen and dining areas. In the old restaurant, four of 12 tables were in "blind spots". Now all guests can see the kitchen.

The restaurant's format of snacks followed by six main courses and three desserts, made with produce grown on the family's nearby farm with a zero-waste mentality, will evolve as they settle into the new space, with Blayne hoping to have more time on the farm.

The bar's menu reflects that of the restaurant, in snack form. "Things that we like eating with booze," says Chayse, "like our old man's cotoletta." For wines, the focus is on small-batch Victorian producers such as Bindi and Vignerons Schmolzer & Brown as well as some interesting international bottles.

With the additional bar seats the overall capacity has doubled. But the brothers want their customers to know that "it's still small, still intimate, and you'll still be looked after by us," says Chayse. "Blayne and I won't miss a service – we haven't for six years, so we'll be there."

O.My is open for dinner from 6pm Thu-Sun; lunch Sat-Sun; at 19-21 Woods Street, Beaconsfield, omyrestaurant.com.au