Maybe I’m a romantic at heart, but I love penning and receiving letters in the post. Call me a nostalgic silver fox, but an email full of abbreviations and emojis doesn’t pull the same heartstrings – lol.

There’s a genuine, direct connection with ink on paper, and it is that feeling that is akin to a meal at Dear Sainte Eloise. It’s soul-satisfying – a place where staff are emotionally invested.

Owner Matt Swieboda and three of his alumni from laneway bar, Love, Tilly Devine, have overhauled his Llankelly Place eatery Waterman’s Lobster Co, returning to his true love – wine. Wine pros Nate Hatwell and Jasmin Natterer have helped make it feel like a neighbourhood restaurant with bistro furniture and low lighting.

It’s also got a wonderful wine bar sashay that suggests one can savour serious wines – not seriously expensive wines, an important difference. Some 300 globetrotting bottles celebrate winemakers as much as varietals and techniques. Standouts are Australia’s Patrick Sullivan, Mount Mary, and Frederic Cossard in Burgundy.

Chef Ben Abiad’s (Sean’s, Brickfields Bakery) menu is a refined list of Italian-inspired, wine-friendly dishes designed to share. Its brevity is self-assured. Our oysters arrive with a mignonette of fermented horseradish juice. A simple plate of fennel salami provides a salty, creamy interlude before Nona’s runner beans, cooked until khaki, which are splendidly soft and sweet.

Peas, mint and chilli add charisma to moreish, firm orecchiette, while thick slices of pink wagyu come smothered in a spot-on tonnato sauce. Although it was missing the promised roast peppers, the dish didn’t need them. A dollop of creme fraiche partners polenta and rosemary cake for a superb ending.

Dear Sainte Eloise, you are a sweet venue worth writing home about.