Nearly two years after buying the Lorne Hotel, Merivale finally opened the doors to its first Victorian restaurant, Totti's Lorne, at the weekend.

With four outlets in Sydney, the Totti's style of casual Italian dining is already well known in the harbour city. On the Lorne beachfront, the NSW-based hospitality group is giving the brand a Victorian spin through the use of local produce and a slightly more rugged look.

Tiles cover bar tops, walls, seats and columns in the venue, which in some places draws heavily on a 1970s palette of amber, orange and brass, particularly in a rear bar that is styled on a ski chalet. At the front, large ocean-facing windows meet a bright coastal trattoria design.

"It's Cinque Terre and Capri meets Lorne meets Swiss ski lodge," says Merivale executive chef (and Totti's mastermind) Mike Eggert.

Speculation about Merivale's plans for Victoria was rife until Totti's was confirmed for the hotel last November. Merivale's second Victorian venue, in the seven-storey Tomasetti House on Flinders Lane in Melbourne, is in the planning phase and will open sometime next year.

Totti's planned February opening was delayed, but the build still came down to the wire, with styling teams working through the night last week to finesse arrangements of pottery, cactuses, wooden bowls and paintings on the ground floor of the 145-year-old hotel.

Eggert and Lorne Hotel executive chef Matt Germanchis (ex Captain Moonlite, Pei Modern, MoVida) sent out hundreds of rounds of the restaurant's signature puffy bread to diners making the most of the Labour Day long weekend, but there are also fresh tricks in their bag, many of them hauled from Victoria's fisheries.

Pickled Portarlington mussels join Totti's many antipasti dishes, whole King George whiting is served schnitzel-style, crumbed and deep-fried, and cuttlefish, chicory and chickpeas are served with lumache (snail shell) pasta, for example.

A large range of tarts, including pistachio-apricot, chocolate-hazelnut and custard, is available, and Germanchis can indulge his passion for gelato-making, churning out six flavours a day using shiny new equipment.

Germanchis says his time at Anglesea's Captain Moonlite has given him a firm footing for feeding families and big groups in a casual setting. Simplicity and honesty are his watchwords.

Open daily noon-10pm.

176 Mountjoy Parade, Lorne, 02 9114 7399, merivale.com/venues/tottis-lorne/

Post from the coast

The opening of Totti's coincides with other changes in the Geelong and Bellarine dining scene.

MoVida, ousted from its home at the Lorne Hotel by Totti's, was to have shifted into the former Eureka Hotel in Little Malop Street, Geelong, this March. That project is now off due to the cost of developing the site, but MoVida has confirmed it's still interested in a Geelong location.

A contemporary Indian restaurant, Santara, is opening on March 17 at the Sunnymead Hotel, a retro motel given a sparkling do-over in Aireys Inlet.

Hot Chicken Project has closed its Torquay temple of Nashville-style fried chicken, and has instead flown north to Ballarat.

Point Lonsdale's cosy wine bar, Noble Rot, is pouring European and Victorian wines alongside snappy snacks.

Changes are coming to Samesyn, which will operate as a profit-for-purpose restaurant from late winter onwards, partnering with organisations such as Feed Me Bellarine.