The sourdough pita is baked to-order in a wood-fire oven and the meat is prepared over three days with garlic, paprika and chilli, before it’s cooked on a horizontal rotisserie.
Anyone who has visited Greece will likely have a fond food memory of eating gyros: those fluffy pita cones packed with paprika-dusted chicken or pork, juicy tomato and bright onion in a tangy, lemon yoghurt sauce.
Yet, many Aussies have a hard time tracking down those same flavours when they return home. “You hear a lot of people say that the food here doesn’t taste the same way it does in Greece,” says Timothy Cassimatis, owner and chef of Marrickville grill house Olympic Meats.
“A lot of Greek restaurants will use pre-made pitas or packet filo, they will buy a lot of stuff in. When I think about how my grandparents or my family would cook, they would be making their own cheeses, their own yoghurt, they would even slaughter the pig.”
Cassimatis embraces these time-honoured traditions at Olympic Meats focusing on humble, village-style food similar to what you would find in the Peloponnese, where his family comes from.
Preparing the meat for the gyros is a three-day process. The chicken is brined for one day, then marinated in a mix of garlic, paprika and bukovo – a dried northern Macedonian chilli – before hitting the spit where it’s cooked over the coals. “Not a lot of people cook on a horizontal rotisserie. They use an electric or gas burner, but you just can’t beat the aroma and flavour that comes from cooking on charcoal,” Cassimatis says.
Then there’s the sourdough pita, which takes two days to make. Timothy uses a blend of local flours, including semolina, to give the bread that same lovely, pale yellow colour you see in Greece. Each ball of dough is rolled out to order and cooked in a wood-fire oven until light and puffy.
As for that rich, dense yoghurt that drips over the gyros and enriches the dips, it’s also made in house from a probiotic-rich sheep’s milk sample that Cassimatis brought over from Greece in January.
One thing you may notice about the gyros at Olympic Meats is that there are no chips in them. “We don’t do it. It’s very controversial, but I stand by the decision. We’ve put so much effort into the meat and the bread, we didn’t want to take away from that.”
You can still order chips on the side. The potatoes are cooked in beef tallow for a uniquely savoury flavour.
The menu revolves around the pork, chicken and politiko (spiced mince) pitogyros, but also includes a selection of fresh, light meze dishes to enjoy on the side. There’s fava bean dip topped with wood fired mushrooms, a Greek salata with Kytherian paximadia – wheat rusks that act like crunchy, oil-soaked croutons – and the hand-rolled spanakopita, named after Cassimatis’ yiayia, Olympia. “She brought the recipe with her when she came to Australia in 1961.”
The restaurant is partly named after his grandmother, Olympia, and partly after the legendary Greek peak. “It’s been a very long and difficult journey to get here; it’s felt like climbing a mountain at times.”
Cassimatis worked his way up to the position of head chef at Barzaari in Marrickville, before COVID-19 hit and the restaurant closed. For the past four years, he’s been running his catering business, Tim Fresh, from the back of his parents’ house so he could save up and finally open his place.
Olympic Meats is Cassimatis’ way of carrying the family torch, giving back to the vibrant Greek community he grew up in, and teaching people about real Greek food.
“You’ve got the Corinthian (Rotisserie Restaurant), the Lamia Super Deli. But they won’t be around forever. I’m doing my best to help capture the essence of this area and tell my story, and my grandparents’ story too.”
Olympic Meats, 12 Dudley St, Marrickville. Open Wednesday to Sunday. More information at www.olympicmeats.shop
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Erina Starkey – Erina is the Good Food App Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously, Erina held a number of editing roles at delicious.com.au and writing roles at Broadsheet and Concrete Playground.
