Moonah, The Age Good Food Guide’s Regional Restaurant of the Year, is popping up in Geelong on weekends in June. Usually a 12-seat fine diner overlooking a billabong in quiet Connewarre, Moonah will transform into a 30-seat restaurant at the venerable Geelong Club, an 1889 heritage building that is normally a members-only affair.

The $210 tasting menu will be refashioned as a more accessible $100 four-course dinner, and Sunday evening sessions will showcase a local winemaker.

“We hope it’s something new and exciting for our customers and anyone that hasn’t been yet,” says Moonah chef and owner Tobin Kent. “It’s more central, a different price point, a fun and relaxed environment.”

The menu will feature bistro-style dishes larger than Moonah’s usual petite tasting plates but with the same premium produce. “I’ll do dry-aged duck, wild venison and a Port Phillip Bay snapper ceviche,” says Kent.

He’s also resurrecting a couple of old favourites. One is a side dish of potatoes cooked in seawater and dressed with seaweed powder, another is a dessert of baked custard ice-cream with Jerusalem artichoke caramel, hazelnut crumble and a drizzle of new-season olive oil. After the adventures of June, the restaurant will take a month off in July.

The Geelong Club, 74 Brougham Street, Geelong; Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in June, dinner only. Pre-paid tickets go on sale Saturday, May 6 at moonahrestaurant.com.au.

In Geelong’s south, French favourite Bistrot Plume has new owners after founders Kate and Nathan Veach decided to take their Francophilia to the next level by purchasing a country house in Burgundy.

The new owners of the one-hat restaurant are Ben McLachlan and Jackson Fort, the team behind The Local Geelong bakery and enoteca. Fort was also head chef at regional high-flyer Tulip and cooked at two-hat Igni before that.

“Bistrot Plume really appeals because it’s a little French bistro but with an Igni vibe,” says Fort. “It’s just 26 seats with a small team and we all work together across a four-day week. It’s a good lifestyle.”

He’s added shared dishes including a rib-eye with cafe de Paris butter and roasted duck a l’orange, and will continue to lean into local producers such as Schulz Organic Dairy and small-scale Kinsfolk Farm.

Bistrot Plume, Friday-Sunday lunch, Thursday-Saturday dinner, 56a Mount Pleasant Road, Belmont, 03 5245 8483, bistrotplume.com.au.

There’s a new opportunity to get onto the water with renowned mussel farmer Lance Wiffen, who has just launched Portarlington Mussel Tours for up to 12 people at a time.

Wiffen and his wife Lizzie welcome seafood fans for a three-hour experience on a refurbished trawler. You’ll kick off with local bubbles, a produce platter and just-harvested native Angasi oysters, then power out to the leases and pull up mussels before enjoying them in two different dishes. Local wines and beers are on hand throughout.

“I’ve always known there was something special about what I do, being on the water, working with a delicious and sustainable product,” says Wiffen, who has previously only been able to take out the odd chef on a rough-and-ready working boat. (Ben Shewry was famously charmed and Wiffen’s mussels have featured at Attica.)

“I wanted to be able to share that with more people in a comfortable and intimate setting. My vision has finally come true and I’m pretty pleased with it.”

Departures from Portarlington Pier are timed to coincide with the arrival and departure of the Docklands ferry.

Tours run select weekends, $230 per person, portarlingtonmusseltours.com.au