Jo Barrett has built her reputation as a chef on sustainability, from the groundbreaking Future Food System project to her work at Oakridge Wines in the Yarra Valley. The delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards judge was, in 2021, named on the global 50 Next list as someone who is “shaping the future of gastronomy.” It would then surprise some to know that her next chapter takes her to Lorne, and the opening of a community focused restaurant at the local bowlo. 

“We’re calling it Little Picket at Lorne Bowls Club,” says Barrett, a nod to both the venues picket fence and the fact that they’ll be growing and picking much of their own produce. It’s a project that Barrett has been chipping away at over months but relatively tight lipped about, not wanting to unsettle the local community before she’d fully formed the project in her own mind.

“It’s an absolute balancing act,” she says. “Because we want a community restaurant, that’s the main focus of it. People can come here and taste Lorne or the Great Ocean Road but we’re trying to make sure that there’s food for a local community to come regularly because they are ultimately the ones who will support us.” 

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With tables milled from Otway timber and a growing a list of producers from the region providing eggs, oil, lamb, ducks and milk, Barrett is keeping things local but also not just leaving production to chance. Drawing on her experience at Oakridge Wines and the Future Food System house, where with collaborators Matt Stone and Joost Bakker they grew food on and in the Federation Square concept home, Barrett is developing a 4-acre market garden. Located on a friend’s property 20-minutes from Lorne she reflects that at Oakridge Wines they only had had 100 square metres of growing space. 

“I’m just trying to get more interesting vegetables and leaves and stuff in the ground,” she says. “And then we’ll focus on those things that grow well in the area like garlic. It’s been so cold, so everything is pretty slow.” She has dubbed her plot Little Picket Farm and hints that one day it too could be the site of a restaurant, but she says one step at a time, and only if the time is right. 

“There’s a few epic growers down here, and many are organic, says Barrett. “Yan Yan Gurt West Farm is a lamb farmer, and they do agroforestry on their farm as well, there’s Great Ocean Ducks as well. And we’re getting a dough break, so we’re going to do some pastries and pies.” 

The vibe she says is “like a pubby bistro,” a casual eatery with a dessert buffet where you can buy things by the slice. While the opening menu is still being devised Barrett says to expect dishes like a Portarlington mussel bouillabaisse and rouille, Great Ocean Road Duck with fragrant curry sauce, potato cakes with fromage blanc, and a spiced ginger pudding with whey butterscotch. Wine is a “massive mix, all Australian,” and will evolve, featuring “entry level stuff, some funky, interesting things in the middle and then hopefully some higher end winemakers,” says Barrett.

While pleasing locals and those who will travel on the strength of Barrett’s reputation, she’s determined that it be a place that connects age groups, “because there’s the bowling community, and they do have younger crew, but yeah, typically a bit older, and we would like to draw in some of the younger group as well and bring the two generations together.”

Little Picket opens in late August.

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