Wine consultant Peter Bourne is chuffed with the suggestion that the Leura Garage wine list is a cellar door for the vineyards of the Central Ranges of New South Wales. He says ultimately the format wine lists take reflect the restaurant owners' philosophy, desired price points, and prospective audience."

Owners father and son, Peter and James Howarth, were looking for local wines and Peter's final comment was to focus on the Central Ranges with European wines from France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Austria for interest, and Champagne as a highlight,"

Peter Bourne says. The Central Ranges wine region covers Mudgee, Orange, Cowra, Canowindra, and Bathurst and Peter has snuck a wine in from the Megalong Valley as well.

"The wine list is regionally balances, affordable, and easy to drink," he says. "This is a list designed to sell. Sometimes you see wine lists that have a lot of show ponies that are there to see and not drink. "There are a few lesser known wines that are not bouncing off the list and they will need to earn the confidence of the Leura Garage client base."

That client base will be diverse indeed, from locals settling in for the afternoon to tourists with a spare hour moving through the mountains. With this in mind there is a good range of wines available by the glass and considerable effort has gone into selecting the five Leura Garage house wines and brand.

"I'd like to think that winemakers will drop in and check up on the wine list as well. They may like to drop off samples as they cross the mountains as they commute from their vineyards to and from Sydney."

Whether it's New Orleans' signature muffuletta sandwiches, pastries cooked on site in the early hours of the morning, or a casual antipasto platter featuring serrano ham freshly cut on the restored 60-year-old Continental slicer, Leura Garage chef Misha Laurent is creating his own food niche in the mountains.

The menu reflects Misha's French and German heritage and experience working in Germany, Toronto, and Singapore. He is not a chef you can pigeon hole. "The menu has a European influence because Leura was lacking in that area," Misha says. "We wanted to create something different and I don't think we have hit too far from the mark."

Customers may try tapas, pizza, pasta, or risotto and the underlying theme will be swift friendly service, quality, hearty produce and inexpensive, affordable prices. Misha was brought up with a love of food and cooking, gaining knowledge and understanding from his father who was a "huge food man". "We would drive six hours from Munich to have dinner in Italy on a Friday night," he recalls.

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As recently as a month before the opening of Leura Garage, Genaro Benmayor of Umami Coffee and Three Flavours Coffee Consultants, was inspecting coffee beans in Panama indicating the dedication behind the coffee served at the restaurant. Genaro was in Panama to source coffees and continue building relationships with the farmers that grow the much-desired cherry.

The coffee chosen for Leura Garage is a blend of Ethiopian and Brazilian beans from last harvest. "The flavour profile is versatile, and the best way to describe it is dessert-like, with a pungent fruit flavour," Genaro says.

Umami Coffee supplies tins of roasted coffee and loose-leaf tea, branded with the Leura Garage logo. If customers like what they drink they can buy ground espresso or plunger coffee for use at home.

The tins are airtight to keep ground coffee fresh, are recyclable, and can be brought into the restaurant to be refilled.

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