For the past few decades, Australia's best regional restaurants have largely been found in tourist hotspots catering to day-trippers. Cellar-door degustations asking seven hours of your time; waterfront dining rooms where the view is included in the price; far-flung destinations you need to plan a weekend around.

This is all well and good for visitors to a region and its tourism economy, but traditionally there haven't been a lot of properly great small(er)-town restaurants designed with locals in mind. I'm talking about the kind of cosy spot you can pop into for a midweek martini, some nice anchovies and a roast chook without having to book a month in advance.

Murwillumbah's Bistro Livi opened in late January, however, and the Northern Rivers restaurant is exactly that spot, albeit with chargrilled quail ($24), plump and juicy in a sweet-sour sauce of pomegranate molasses, raisins, capers and pine nuts, rather than chicken. 

It's a cracking meal for one, but you really want to eat here with a bunch of your favourite people and order as much of the Spanish-influenced menu as possible.

Co-owners and sisters Nikky and Danni Wilson lived in Byron Bay before moving to Melbourne eight years ago. Danni honed her chef skills at Good Food Guide-hatted Carlton Wine Room, while Nikky managed tapas heavyweight MoVida.

Opening a restaurant closer to family and friends was always a "one of these days" plan, and when an old "Murbah" art deco site came up for lease, Livi was born.

Located just off the main drag, the bistro is packed for Saturday lunch when I visit.

Most of the clientele are slightly bohemian locals clad in nice jumpers and leather boots. You probably couldn't go charging $30 for a plate of nutty bellota jamon in nearby Mullumbimby, say, but the Wilsons know their market and the cured pig is a big seller.

The sisters also know the right interior designers, and David Flack (of Flack Studio, the firm which recently kitted out Surry Hills' hot new Ace Hotel) has helped transform what was a bog-standard cafe into an elegant dining room of stained timber and soft lighting.

The space invites a Spanish sin prisa ("no rush") approach to eating, helped by the country mountain music of Bill Callahan and Neil Young. There's no indication the restaurant was under waist-deep water during the February floods, when almost everything was lost, including a gorgeous green-leather banquette, ovens, fridges and the freezer. 

With the help of the community and Ewen Crawford, MoVida's former head chef and the third member of the team, Livi was rebuilt in five weeks. Crawford is a talent in the kitchen and, working closely with Wilson, he extracts every bit of flavour from a larder of Mediterranean spices and Byron Shire produce. 

The Spanish elements are most dominant in a steadying, rust-red dish of calamari and chorizo-adjacent txistorra sausage ($35), pan-fried quickly with fish stock, cider and a gentle dose of paprika. This is intelligent cooking.

Before the squid, consider perfect oysters sharpened with brown rice vinegar mignonette ($5.50 each). More vinegar (chardonnay) stars in a dressing for snacky globe artichoke leaves ($22) marinated in coriander seeds, saffron and olive oil. Fresh guindilla peppers ($16) are wrinkled and blistered from the grill and paired with miso bearnaise to deeply savoury effect.

The menu is seasonal, but I dearly hope the pork chop ($40) – lusciously meaty, fatty and butter-glossed, and covered in a dense foliage of soy-seasoned shiitake mushrooms and radish from local growers Summit Organics – is a keeper. 

Meanwhile, a generous portion of hand-picked spanner crab ($35) is elevated by a butter fragrant with curry leaves, fenugreek and green mango powder. Oven-hot spelt flatbread is provided to pile with the Fraser Isle crustacean and I can't imagine a better way to eat seafood in winter.

If there's a criticism, it's that both desserts are cut from the same thick and heavy cloth. Chocolate mousse with mandarin marmalade ($12) is tasty, but becomes too rich too quickly. "Set cream" ($12) is a lighter option: a cricket ball-sized dollop with panna cotta-like consistency sweetened with honey extracted from hives in nearby Mount Nullum.

With skilled hospitality staff increasingly priced out of opening their own venues in major cities, I suspect more local-minded bistros are destined for regional NSW – places such as Sunday-roast specialist Cadeau in Brunswick Heads and Bellingen's new Osteria Fiume, which slow-cooks a ragu on par with any pasta joint in Paddington.

Regional restaurants are about to become considerably more accessible and a lot more delicious. Long may Livi live.

Vibe City-style grace and polish in a country town

Go-to dish Pork chop with shiitake mushrooms and radish ($40)

Drinks Considered selection of singular, often organic wines from Australia and the Old World

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine