Ryan and Kirstyn Sessions have a long association with Port Fairy. In 2006 the couple (then unmarried) opened The Merrijig Inn – a lightning rod that attracted discerning diners all the way from Melbourne, four hours’ drive east.

In 2016 they followed it up with a makeover of local pub The Stag, giving it a minimalistic Scandi look and rechristening it as Fen. With Ryan’s produce- and technique-driven cooking more dialled-in than ever, the restaurant rose to even greater prominence than its predecessor.

But at the pointy end of hospitality, excellence rarely comes without a toll. The couple closed the restaurant in early 2018, before returning the following year with the casual (and less stressful, one assumes) Randy’s Burgers – which morphed into Fen 2.0 in 2022, doing away with the original à la carte format in favour of degustation only, two nights a week.

Now the couple has announced Fen’s shutting down again. The final service will be February 25, with the attached bottle shop operating until February 28. The restaurant is fully booked until then.

“We have loved our time at 24 Bank Street,” the couple wrote on Instagram. “From opening Randy’s Burgers, working through Covid, opening our food and wine store and creating our dream restaurant Fen that we designed and built by ourselves.

“We are proud of what we have achieved. We will miss our great team, guests, locals that always come in for a chat and our suppliers.

“But the opportunity has come to step away as we have sold.”

Kermond’s Hamburgers, founded in Warrnambool in 1949 and with a second location in Geelong, will take over the site.