Brookline’s refined diner, Menuette, had a false start earlier this year, but its second chance comes starting Wednesday as a revamped, quirky and casual spot called Oak Hill Post.

Much of Brookline sits atop the 1870s caverns of the Oak (coal) Mine, making “Oak Hill” a natural nickname for the area through which Brookline Boulevard now runs. That blue-collar history has inspired not only the new moniker but also the transformation to an affordable, neighborhood restaurant.

“We’re still us, and one of the things our customers expect from us is they don’t want ordinary, everyday stuff,” said part-owner and chef, Christian Schulz. “I want to make something I haven’t tasted yet. I feel like if it’s a surprise to me, and it’s also good — that’s the most important part — then I’m like, ‘OK, I’ll share this with my customers.’”

Owners, chefs and partners Schulz and Rebecca Nicholson are known for their South Hills restaurant pop-ups over the past several years. They’ve have been known to pack Mt. Lebanon’s Korner Pub and Hitchhiker Brewing with beer-highlighting fare and have headlined other events with Brookline’s 802 Bean Company.

In February, they refined their goals and signed for a Brookline Boulevard storefront they called Menuette, their first brick-and-mortar restaurant, which would also anchor their catering business. But Menuette never actually opened in the way Schulz and Nicholson intended.

“To sum up: covid happened,” said Schulz.

Like restaurants everywhere, covid-19 caused Menuette to endure restrictions beginning in mid-March. It also caused Schulz and Nicholson to reconsider their restaurant’s societal purpose.

“Restaurants now, it’s kind of challenging juggling what you can do and what you should do,” Schulz said. “Fancy dinner parties aren’t what we think people really need right now.”

The restaurant people need now

Schulz and Nicholson are eager to learn from customers how O,Hi — the spot’s nickname — might serve the community best.

With so many working from home and a dwindling number of restaurants willing to keep doors open for the less robust lunchtime crowd, the ownership pair sees opportunity.

A hand-lettered, lunch-focused menu hangs on rustic chalkboards inside the mid-century modern-accented dining area. Pared down to six sandwiches, three sides and a compact kids’ offering, the menu for Oak Hill Post’s take-out-only launch succinctly expresses the chefs’ point of view, humor included.

Old crowd-pleasers like the Umami Bomb Burger — a beef patty topped with mushroom ragu, pickled leeks, bleu cheese, bacon jam and dijon mustard — and their anything-but-tired chicken salad sandwich — brined and roasted chicken, secret spices and topped with lip-smacking, vinegar-based coleslaw — will anchor the six-sandwich lineup.

There’s a gutsy fluidity to the remainder of Oak Hill Post’s menu.

With ingredients as unpredictably married as its tentative name, the ManBearPig (named for the South Park cartoon’s mythical monster) has that I-gotta-try-it appeal: Made in-house and flattop-fried mortadella and shaved roast beef is topped with giardiniera pickles, fontina cheese and dijon mustard.

“It was a happy accident,” said Schulz, speaking of the ManBearPig. “We have been testing ideas on friends. We had the giardiniera, and then thought of roast beef, and thought, ‘Let’s just put this all together on a sandwich.’ Everyone loved it.”

Schulz and Nicholson expect to resurrect their online store.

In addition to the kits, the online store will carry other products to encourage quick, quality meals on your own time. Offerings will include Oak Hill Post’s house-made deli meats and breads from Mediterra Bakehouse, the Robinson bakery which Schulz and Nicholson have selected to hold up their massive sandwiches.

“I think people are really busy now with their schedules, working from home, teaching their kids,” said Schulz.

Standing for something

The eye toward affordability while maintaining quality is a theme at Oak Hill Post. Though Menuette focused on locally-farmed foods and homemade breads and pastas, Oak Hill Post takes a more moderate tack.

“We want to support our local food system as much as possible, but that level of support – we can want it as much as we want – it ultimately comes down to what people are willing to pay and what they can pay,” said Schulz.

Farm-to-table and food access is a hot button topic for Schulz. He has ideas about farmers, government officials, consumers and restaurant owners brainstorming together on how to create equal access to high-quality foods.

“What’s my responsibility as a restaurant operator: Do I bring in all the most expensive products that will be great and taste great, but now I have to charge you $17 for a sandwich,” Schulz asked himself aloud. “And who is that really helping? The whole farm-to-table idea is something I’m 100% in support of and would like to be more involved in, but until there’s a bigger conversation about how we make it more accessible to people strictly from a price point, because a lot of people in our neighborhood, and in a lot of neighborhoods, simply cannot afford to eat that way.”

For those who know Schulz well, this covid-inspired self-reflection that caused Menuette’s philosophical transformation into Oak Hill Post isn’t terribly surprising.

Schulz dropped out of high school to chase rock star dreams. Living on his own at 18 years old, he found cooking out of necessity. In his late 20s and without a high school diploma, he did the hard work of attending college for music with composition lessons on the side, until debilitating performance anxiety made those aspirations unrealistic.

A job dishwashing and stuffing sausages at Beechview’s departed The Crested Duck Charcuterie was his first in the industry, and a role later at Mt. Lebanon’s now-defunct Block 292 introduced him to Nicholson.

“She does way more than I could ever probably talk about in one conversation,” Schulz said of Nicholson. “She’s pretty much the backbone of our entire thing. She does pretty much every job you can imagine in a restaurant, she does it and better than me.”

Working creatively and collaboratively with Nicholson is one of the commonalities between music and restaurant ownership that led Schulz down his current path. Working with his hands — both while cooking and putting his carpentry talents to work, like when building the chevron window boxes that decorate O,Hi’s exterior — is another characteristic the two disciplines share.

While the performance anxiety hasn’t followed him, an addiction to the a-ha moments that occur when creativity strikes has remained, and it promises a never-dull menu at Oak Hill Post.

“Like with music, you work at it every day and you practice every day and the more you do it the more a-ha moments you have,” Schulz said.

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