Three new regional dining spots for a sunny Easter road trip (including this waterfront wine bar)

A red-and-white tablecloth Italian restaurant with food by a former Embla chef is keeping Kyneton locals twirling pasta until 10pm some nights since it rolled into the central Victorian town three weeks ago.

Meaning “ours” in Italian, Nostra combines Dane Hewson’s chef skills and Lydia Greenwood’s events background to create a pop-up family-style Italian restaurant wherever it goes. Since launching less than a year ago, the couple has held sell-out dinners atop Lulie Tavern in Melbourne, a residency at Red Hill Hotel in Chewton (near Castlemaine), and now Shirley in Kyneton, which will be home to Nostra until late May.

“I really fell in love with the country and getting to know the people in a small town,” says Greenwood. “It’s something that I wasn’t really expecting to love as much as I did.”

Lasagne is a new menu addition, but already a fan favourite. Drawing on his time at Embla cooking over fire, Hewson sneaks in an unusual ingredient not once but twice. Smoked tomatoes are turned into an oil and also used in the lasagne’s ragu to add a complex, savoury layer to the dish.

It joins seasonal pastas like cavatelli pesto trapanese using summer tomatoes, and pumpkin and sage ravioli plus sides such as grilled broccolini with a vegan XO sauce made with almonds and black beans.

There’s also extra-garlicky garlic bread. Hewson folds confit garlic through the dough of his crusty sourdough ciabatta rolls and adds a final smear of garlic butter that’s brimming with chives and sherry vinegar.

Soon, mushrooms, chestnuts and other autumn ingredients will find their way into dishes from the local producers with whom the couple are quickly forging relationships. Wines are a mix of Musk Lane, made by Shirley co-owner Brendan Lane, and Italian drops. Local spirits such as Animus Gin feature in the cocktails.

Nostra is at Shirley until late May. It’s been such a hit, Hewson and Greenwood are considering adding Sunday lunches and a supper menu for night owls seeking late-night lasagne.

Open Wed-Sat, 5pm-late, 38A High Street, Kyneton, nostrakitchen.com.au

Two more to try

If you’re heading in the other direction, Sorrento’s front beach beckons. Pull up a seat at the Koonya Hotel, the back-to-the-future venue that’s replaced Paul Wilson’s venue, Morgan’s. Taking its name from the pub that once traded in the limestone building, today’s Koonya serves an easy-to-navigate menu with flat prices for dishes to share ($24.50), pub classics ($34.50) and main courses ($49.50). That could mean a pot of mussels in the first bracket, Cumberland pork sausages with mash, or today’s fish with eggplant peperonata. 1 Esplanade, Sorrento, koonyahotel.com.au

On the other side of the bay (or a ferry ride away), there’s more waterfront wining and dining to be had at Portarlington’s Arlo, a wine bar that flung open its doors over summer, serving Bellarine and French wines, salt cod croquettes and larger plates such as squid ink risotto. It’s by Peter Roddy, a part-time local who also runs Pier Street Seafood and, in Richmond, Noir, which he’s about to flip into a more casual pasta bar Pastarami. Longer-term plans for Arlo, which was previously a cafe, include an interior refurb, more seats, and additional outdoor space. 1A Harding Street, Portarlington, arlowines.com.au