Vex Dining is the clever wine bar by Florian Ribul (former head chef at Neighbourhood Wine and Little Andorra) and Owen Probert (ex-restaurant manager at Andrew McConnell’s Marion).

The duo didn’t have to do much to the former Westgarth cafe to turn it into the contemporary wine bar they envisaged. A coat of white paint and a slight rearrangement of the solid red gum counter for the airy dining room, and some new large-scale photographic prints of a Starbuck’s cup, a tin of Sirena tuna and a box of Redheads matches by Melbourne artist Monica Styles for the back wall.

In the afternoon the interior is bathed in sunlight, but if you can’t nab a seat there the astroturfed courtyard is your next best bet, under the shade of an impressively large lemon tree dotted with fairy lights.

The menu is concise and changes often. It might include tiny, intensely fragrant turnips poached in dashi, glazed with soy and vinegar and smoked over feijoa wood from a tree the team removed from the courtyard. Or Stockbrot; dough that’s been wrapped around a stick, dusted with sesame seeds and grilled, served with whipped crème fraiche and pumpkin-seed oil made by Ribul’s family in Austria. The team has a veg-focused ethos and shuns large amounts of protein – but that doesn’t mean the menu is all vegetarian.

When it comes to wine, the team opts for producers with good farming ethics and buying in small quantities so they can bring in new bottles often and keep things fresh.