A city-style wine bar in NSW's best-kept holiday secret

This recent glut of public holidays has been good, hasn't it? Did you get to load up the car with beach towels, a cricket set, champagne and the new Jane Harper? Somewhere light on phone reception, but big on daybeds for a long weekend away?

Yeah, no … me neither.

While everyone else has been brushing sand out of their paperbacks, I've been dealing with a herb garden in a rotten mood for reasons unknown, workers tearing up the road outside our house (also for reasons unknown) and waiting for one day without bloody rain to wash and dry some bloody clothes.

Okay, I did manage to wrangle one night in Sawtell, which might be NSW's best-kept holiday secret. No doubt a fair number of you are thinking, "Yeah, mate, nice one – we've been taking the family to Sawtell for years; how about you keep your 'findings' to yourself?" I would, except it's a ridiculously charming spot and not overrun by stores selling artisan picnic rugs. Although I expect that's about to change as towns further up the coast become increasingly expensive for tourists and new businesses.

Sawtell is six hours north of Sydney by car and 15 minutes from Coffs Harbour. There's a chip shop for battered dory and a beachside kiosk for chocolate milkshakes. A tiny cinema screens new releases and the sourdough bakery has custard snails. Already perfect, right?

Bar Que Sera opened on the main drag about two years ago, which means there's now a place to eat prawn rolls and drink decent riesling, too.

Bianca Wendt and Ric Divola are the wife-and-husband team behind the breezy joint, which is casual enough that you can wear Havaianas and shorts, but slick enough that a nice shirt with buttons wouldn't be overdressing. Before returning to the region where they grew up, the couple were working in Melbourne – Wendt as venue manager at The Everleigh cocktail bar, Divola cooking at two-hatted Cutler & Co.

The place is half-full when I visit, mainly with locals, some young, many retired. A green-tiled bar flanked by amaro bottles and vintage vermouth prints is the ideal place in which to order a few snacks and not do much else. One regular requests an off-menu Brandy Alexander and it's rustled up, no sweat. I ask for an Old Fashioned ($20) and it's served deathly cold. Good.

That prawn roll ($10) starter is thumping with a fermented lemon and dill mayo, and you could eat two and call it lunch.

Crunchy, mozzarella-filled croquettes ($5 each) are flecked with rosemary and thyme and made for inhaling with a Wicked Elf pilsner ($10) brewed in Port Macquarie. 

A $7 sandwich of pillowy bread and pork katsu (Japanese-style schnitzel) is just as cold beer-friendly, but could be bigger for the price.

The rest of the menu reads like the line-up of every early-summer dinner party I've ever hosted: a couple of salads, some pasta, a bit of fish and a steak. Charred zucchini are blistered and sharpened with olives and freshened with mint. Creamy stracciatella cheese comes with pickled mushrooms and chives ($18); beetroot is honed with horseradish creme fraiche ($14).

Frilly edged mafaldine pasta (the one that looks like a grandma's garter) is served "best give it a minute" hot and enhanced with a glossy, fermented chilli butter and herby pangrattato. It's tossed with a liberal amount of tiger prawns for $34; the smart money is on a $12 glass of Kennedy Vintners 2021 rosé to slice through the butter and get those holiday vibes flowing.

Ladlefuls of lemon beurre blanc are poured over pan-fried mahi mahi ($38) caught near Woolgoolga, a few beaches north. It's an excellent bit of fish, sweet and firm-fleshed with plenty of capers and poached cherry tomatoes to keep things interesting.

After bourbon-spiked creme brulee ($15, quite splendid), staff give me the hot tip to stroll over to newish bar The Athletic Club, which is a terrific little boozer with serious cocktails and Guinness on tap. Certainly worth staying close to town for.

In November, Wendt and Divola are set to open Morty's Joint, an even more relaxed venue with fried chicken, 25 craft beers and honesty-box pool next door to Bar Que Sera. I'm already plotting my next visit for a weekend of sunscreen, surf and pisco sours. 

I suggest you do the same before the rest of the state jumps on board. It's certainly closer for Sydneysiders than Byron and oh-so-much cheaper. Dare I say the bars and beaches might be better, too?

Vibe: City wine-bar in a country town

Go-to dish: Mafaldine with tiger prawns and fermented chilli butter ($34)

Drinks: Two-page list with equal consideration given to craft beer, cocktails and young, natural-leaning wines

Cost: About $130 for two, excluding drinks

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine