From a souvlaki bar on a rooftop to village-style cooking at Olympic Meats, the city is embracing all things Greek.
When Greek chef Ntinos Fotinakis swaps his restaurant on the Athenian Riviera this month for a two-week takeover at Manta restaurant at Woolloomooloo Wharf, he’ll land in a city amid an unprecedented explosion of Greek food.
It has felt like Greek week in Sydney for the past 12 months, as the city ran a fever for Greek restaurant openings. Fotinakis’ moussaka croquettes at Manta will need to be impressive; he’s competing with dishes such as the lambs’ brains tiganita at Redfern’s sizzling hot Olympus Dining, which opened in December. And there’s the shellfish saganaki at Ammos, the sprawling restaurant Australian Greek chef Peter Conistis opened last year at Brighton-le-Sands. Conistis has also been busy in the Sydney CBD, opening Ela Ela restaurant at the Bristol Arms hotel late last year, after launching a souvlaki bar on its rooftop.
Last week, Olympic Meats joined the party in Marrickville, punching out gyros made with the sort of care you might find on the Peloponnese: meat prepared for three days wrapped in hand-made sourdough pita. Bondi Beach will also get in on the opening act, with Kazzi restaurant announcing it will open there in May, after gaining a fast following in Manly and Balmoral.
It even appears Sydney might have overtaken Melbourne – with its giant Greek diaspora – as the vanguard of innovative Greek food. When restaurant operators from another city with a massive Greek population, Chicago, came looking for talent, they headed to the harbour city. They found a leading figure in next-wave Greek-Australian cooking, David Tsirekas, who opened Perama restaurant in Petersham in 1993, before relaunching it four years ago. Tsirekas has spent the past few years consulting at Greek restaurants in Chicago. He’s currently working on a start-up in the US he describes as “Fishbowl meets Greek”.
Chicago might look to Sydney now, but it wasn’t always that way. “When I opened Perama, most of the Greek places here were Greek tavernas. It was the era of dolmades, but the cabbage [rather than vine leaves] version, and European dishes like Steak Diane would pop up on menus,” Tsirekas said.
“I started introducing skate and liver,” Tsirekas said of Perama’s early days. In the 1990s, customers trekked across Sydney to try Perama, and Conistis make a great leap for Greek when his Darlinghurst restaurant, Cosmos, became Sydney’s first chefs’ hatted Hellenic restaurant.
Sydney diners played as big a role in the success of Greek food. “We can evolve things quickly because Australians are open to new flavours. We have ADHD with food, always [looking] for the next thing,” Tsirekas said.
So, what’s all the fuss with Greek food? An uptick in Australians travelling to Greece has undeniably helped drive the taste for the country’s food.
The Greek consul general in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis, argues the healthy balance of vegetables with fish and meats – along with its “famous olive oil” – is a big part of the appeal.
A dedicated food-lover with a career that has posted from New York to Niscosia, Mallikourtis is impressed by the number of Greek food options in Sydney.
However, Mallikourtis remains diplomatic when it comes to divulging his go-to Sydney Greek favourites: “While it would be inappropriate for me to comment on specific venues, I would say that there is Greek cuisine for all tastes, reflecting somewhat the trends that exist back home.
“In other words, if you are on a low budget and you want something quick, there are places you can get a souvlaki or gyro wrap. If you want something more traditional, there are Greek restaurants which have been running here for decades; then there are also more modern twists, or ‘fusion Greek’ restaurants.”
That diversity across Sydney Greek food venues impressed Tsirekas. Home after his latest stint in Chicago, the chef made a point to try the new crop of venues. He found the food at Olympic Meats in Marrickville “as authentic as somewhere you’d find in a Greek village”, and was impressed with Kazzi, both its Balmoral and Manly restaurants. “They didn’t hold back on the flavour,” Tsirekas said.
One restaurant missing from the Sydney Greek checklist is Ploos, at The Rocks. Ploos’ chef Peter Conistis told The Herald he’s checked out of the waterfront restaurant and is no longer involved. “I asked [the owner] that my name and menu be removed,” he said. Ploos is currently listed online as temporarily closed.
Not that Tsirekas had to look far to find Conistis’ cooking. “I loved the space at Ammos [at Brighton-le-Sands], it’s like a Greek Icebergs. And Ela Ela in the city is a great package. Peter’s food is really good, the price is on point and the room is contemporary Athenian.”
Fotinakis’ fortnight-long kitchen takeover at Manta, which starts on March 21 (set menu $85/$105 a head) is part of a bigger plan to introduce more Greek dishes at the Woolloomooloo seafood restaurant. Owner Bill Drakopoulos’ Sydney Restaurant Group has a large stable, including Sails at Lavender Bay and Ormeggio at The Spit, but has until now been cautious about dipping his toe in Greek waters.
Drakopoulos said Fotinakis’ short residency would sew the seeds for cross-pollination of contemporary food ideas between the countries. “There’s a lot of fusion, a lot of raw fish used in Greece today, and pastas with seafood. And the climate in Greece is warm [like here],” he said.
Fotinakis, who cooks at Bungalow 7 at the One&Only Aesthesis resort in Athens, will bring his signature astakomakaronada (lobster pasta) and taramasalata with yuzu to Sydney.
Con Dedes is another Greek Australian chef with a large stable of restaurants – which include Flying Fish and Sala Dining – to tap the cuisine. Last year, Dedes snapped up Alpha, the modern Greek restaurant on Castlereagh Street in the Sydney CBD.
Dedes believes Sydney’s Greek restaurant market was underserviced, with demand outstripping supply.
“It was always going to happen,” Dedes said of the latest Greek boom. Loosen your belts, it sounds like more venues are on the way.
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