The notion of restaurants sourcing ingredients locally is open to interpretation. They could be grown in the chef’s kitchen garden, sourced within 100 kilometres of the restaurant, or simply grown in Australia.

Apera, a new restaurant in leafy Castlecrag, has a take on ‘local’ I’ve not encountered before, but I like it. The kitchen sources as much as possible from local businesses – the fruit and vegetable shop, the butcher et al. It’s kind of romantic and the community-minded ethos chimes nicely with the setting in the Quadrangle Shopping Village.

It would mean little, however, if the businesses weren’t hitting the same standards as the restaurant. Luckily, they offer best-in-class produce such as Cowra lamb, Merimbula oysters and clams from South Australia, or sometimes Cloudy Bay’s diamond-shell numbers guest-star on the menu.

Co-owners Jenny Shaw (Suzie Q Coffee and Records) and Dane Gorrel, and chef Ryan Blagrove not only place importance on quality produce, but champion Australian wine producers, brewers and distillers, too, along with native ingredients.

Clever combinations and technique underpin winning dishes such as Sydney rock oysters with blood orange and a dash of golden kelp powder. From the wood-fired oven come knockout smoke-licked clams with ’nduja oil and pops of samphire, and Cowra lamb slathered with Dorrigo pepper chimichurri, pairing perfectly with the zing of radish, watercress and apple salad. The rôtisserie, meanwhile, turns out cracking Bangalow porchetta.

There’s a genuine sense that you’re being looked after from the moment you arrive at this contemporary dinercum- bar until you roll out the door fuller than a centipede’s sock drawer – you can’t ask for much more from your local.