Matt Vero and Stephen Mitchell have plenty of experience reviving pubs. The pair re-opened The Bridge Hotel in Werribee together in 2020 and serial publican Vero has been part of teams that revamped the Orrong Hotel, the Healesville Hotel and many other venues.

Almost a year since taking over the lease, Vero and Mitchell will reopen the Morning Star Hotel in Williamstown next month. They’re joined by Williamstown local Aaron Onofretchook, a commercial painter who approached Vero – the two know each other from school pick-up – about taking over the pub.

“Williamstown was a pretty thriving area for pub culture. Over the course of the last 10 or 15 years, a lot of places closed down out here, and that kind of pub culture slowly left the area,” Mitchell tells Broadsheet. “The Morning Star is a place that a lot of locals talk about. It holds a nostalgic place in the community as a meeting spot and a place for families to gather for a meal.”

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Interior designer Anouska Milstein of Studio A Mi (who also designed Wally’s), has reimagined the pub, drawing influence from 1970s California, specifically drawing from Slim Aarons’s photographs and surf culture books.

Milstein says an existing door at The Star made from retro amber bottle glass “really inspired the sunny-Cali concept” and she decided to use it as a motif throughout the space. She sourced doors with the same glass off Facebook Marketplace and repurposed the material into new joinery and design features.

The California influence will be felt mostly in the dining room – which will have a gold ceiling and vinyl tables – and less so in the beer garden and front bar.

Former Stomping Ground executive chef Ben Issacs will oversee the menu, which isn’t taking the California route, instead it will highlight Aussie pub classics. There’ll also be a strong emphasis on seafood to tie in with the location.

The Morning Star Hotel is expected to reopen in mid-October.

Additional reporting by Shabnam Sidhu