Stringers Sorrento

Stringers is a Mornington Peninsula icon. This longstanding corner cafe on Ocean Beach Road was relaunched in 2022 by the Darling Group (Higher Ground, Top Paddock and Kettle Black), bringing the 1896-built limestone beacon into the modern era as an all-day restaurant and bar with a provedore selling fancy deli and grocery items.

On the breakfast menu, you might find fluffy buttermilk waffles with whipped ricotta and caviar on toast with cream cheese and dill. But during the day, a pizza oven imported from Verona kicks in, churning out Neapolitan-style pies made with 72-hour fermented and proved dough.

As well as pizzas, the lunch offering features snacks such as calamari fritti, and pastas like rigatoni with stracciatella and vodka. Most of the dishes centre around locally caught seafood.

There’s an underground wine cellar stocked with rare and crowd-pleasing drops from the area, which you can also shop from a dedicated wine wall in-store.

The bright, breezy refit – led by Melbourne’s Chris Connell Design (Hero, Agostino, Bar Carolina) – pays homage to the building’s century-old heritage. But it’s been freshened up with custom-designed furniture and modern, coastal-inspired touches. The sleek, light-filled space has a Mediterranean vibe that spills out into a north-facing courtyard with a huge olive tree.