The Wy Yung Pub has been thriving under owner Damien Overy, who purchased the pub during the middle of 2023.
Mr Overy, who can trace his ancestry back to the 1880s in East Gippsland, grew up in Bairnsdale, attending Bairnsdale Primary School (754) before going to Bairnsdale Secondary College.
More significantly, Mr Overy played football for Wy Yung before moving to Melbourne to establish a scaffolding company.
After moving back to the area to renovate a house in Wy Yung, Mr Overy would often stop by the Wy Yung Pub, but noticed it wasn’t always open.
“I’d come here for a meal and it was closed a lot,” he said.
After the pub was put up for sale, Mr Overy took notice.
“It went to market but I don’t think there was much interest in it,” he said.
Mr Overy, who ironically used to drink at the pub after playing football in his younger days, decided the right thing to do would be to buy it.
“We changed the beer back to CUB rather than Lion brands, but that’s about it,” Mr Overy said.
The bistro and beer garden are child friendly, the latter into the afternoon before what Mr Overy said “in the evening the pub turns into, exactly that, a pub”.
“We have a range of both indoor and outdoor seating, we have a terrace, an undercover beer garden, top bar seating and dining seating. We allow dogs in our outdoor seating areas (terrace, beer garden).
“We try to have a new special weekly, typically something that works in with the weather forecast. We’ve currently got red wine lamb shanks as it’s starting to get chilly out.
“We try and get as much if not all our produce local, as there are so many great local suppliers in this area.”