An op-shop-meets-faded-Parisian-bar aesthetic, and chef Amy Hamilton’s own brand of delicious, still surprise many. It’s perhaps because you don’t expect to find such city sensibility so far from the bright lights.

Let’s talk about Hamilton’s brussels sprouts. Where this humble vegetable is the stuff of childhood standoffs – boiled and bleak – here they’re pimped to joyful must-order status. Deep-fried until crisp, with bitter burnt edges, there’s sweetness and heat from a sriracha honey, a salty parmesan hit, garlic and then a welcome freshness from Vietnamese mint and lime.

Loaded fries with smoked brisket are what Hamilton has described as “just drunk food”. And a pho-spiced gravy, laced with five-spice, sriracha, garlic and shallot powder are embedded in my memory, much like Dan Hong’s cheeseburger spring rolls.

These quick-fire dishes are great front-bar fare, and the wine list is one of the best representations of Great Southern wine out there. Hamilton and her front-of-house manager Keryn Giles know good booze; Giles is carving out a reputation as one of Australia’s smartest young bartenders. I sit at a marble-topped table and work my way through some of the more natural and leftfield offerings of the region – Lowboi, Brave New Wine, Express Winemakers, La Violetta et al – but there’s also a good degree of the traditional names from the region, and beyond.

Hamilton’s grounding as a chef is thanks to Russell Blaikie of Perth’s Must Wine Bar, where she worked her way from kitchen hand to trainee chef back in the early 2000s. Like many of Blaikie’s alumna, Hamilton has gone on to great things, via Melbourne and travelling. Engaged with her Great Southern producers in a way that should be a benchmark for any chef, Hamilton will talk wine with as much enthusiasm as the joys of new-season asparagus.

To paint Liberte as just a good-time joint is only partly accurate. It belies the larger plates, like a not-so-classic steak frites: a hefty Butterfield sirloin from the Stirling Ranges with a Maggi and fried shallot butter. There’s go-to chilli crab and garlic noodles – somewhat of a signature these days – and crisp roast pork belly with a mustard oil and tamarind vinaigrette. Liberte, and the work of Hamilton and Giles, is perhaps now stuck with the regional tag. In truth, it could be dropped lock, stock and barrel of sriracha in any Australian city, where it would find a rapturous audience, and Hamilton and Giles would no doubt connect with purveyors of all things good. But until then you’ll have to make the journey to Albany.