One of Kafeneion’s owners has overhauled Salona, the Richmond diner that’s been in his family for three generations. It’s part of a Greek renaissance that’s sweeping Melbourne, with three other new venues just open.
One of Melbourne’s oldest family-run Greek restaurants, Salona in Richmond, has just gone through its biggest change in its 56-year life. The Swan Street venue has more than doubled its capacity and brought on a leading Melbourne restaurateur for design advice, ushering in a suave new chapter for the institution.
“It’s a blessing that we’ve been able to get this far,” says Alexandra Konis, who owns Salona with her husband Stavros. The 1969-established restaurant has been run continuously by Stavros’ family for three generations.
“We’ve got customers who have been eating here for more than 30 years,” says Alexandra.
Salona’s expansion into the similarly long-standing Greek-owned travel agency next door has been a few years in the making, delayed by a stroke of serendipity.
In searching for a site in which to temporarily operate during the renovation, Stavros approached mate and mentor Con Christopoulos – the legendary restaurateur behind The European, City Wine Shop and many more – whose Bourke Street venue, Self Preservation, then lay dormant.
Their pop-up popped off, birthing the wildly popular Kafeneion (which has since relocated to The Melbourne Supper Club).
While Christopoulos isn’t technically involved in Salona, “his magic touch can be seen all through the [new] space”, says Alexandra.
Lending his design expertise to the fit-out means there’s an alfresco area like City Wine Shop’s and a bar like Self Preservation’s. Burnt-orange bullion glass channels yiayia’s house, while Greek-Australian artist Efrossini Chaniotis has recreated murals that once graced the walls of the original Salona space, including a scene of two Greek men dancing arm in arm.
Taking over the former travel agency has bumped capacity from 45 to 100 seats, giving regulars more chance of a booking. But no such overhaul has struck the menu.
“We’re celebrating the fact that this was [Stavros’ grandfather’s] restaurant,” says Alexandra.
That means sidestepping what’s trendy, for what’s traditionally served in Greece. Grilled lamb cutlets are “sliced so thin you could eat 20,” says Alexandra. Goat, sourced through G. McBean Family Butcher, is oven-baked in parchment paper. And portokalopita, the syrup-drenched orange and filo cake, is crowned with daubs of yoghurt.
Salona began as a true kafeneion – “the kind of meeting place that’s in every village square in Greece”, Alexandra says – and that sense of community is what’s kept it going all these years.
“People think [food] is the primary thing when it comes to success, but it’s the way you make people feel,” she says. “What it all comes down to is hospitality.”
Lunch and dinner Mon-Sat
260A Swan Street, Richmond, salona.com.au
Three other Greek newcomers to try
Muses Wine Bar, Fitzroy North
Kafeneion’s former venue manager Yianni Malindretos has struck out on his own, opening wine bar Muses where beloved bistro Pinotta stood until recently. It’s a hard act to follow, but Malindretos hopes to fill the void with a laidback venue that locals can use as they please, from spontaneous drinks (raki-spiked cocktail, anyone?) to feasts influenced by his Cretan heritage.
The meze-heavy menu includes taramasalata, spanakopita, soutzoukakia (baked meatballs), and sesame seed-crusted slabs of feta, served molten with Cretan honey. Youvarlakia avgolemono is a lemony Greek meatball soup. A baklava-tiramisu hybrid – the best parts of both desserts in a nest of kataifi pastry – is “what 90 per cent of diners want to try, even if they’re full,” Malindretos says.
32 Best Street, Fitzroy North, museswinebar.com.au
The Pontian Club, Collingwood
What started as a pop-up serving home-style Greek cuisine is now a fully fledged 60-seat diner, with exposed brick walls and pressed metal ceilings carefully preserved in a century-old site.
OppositeMasses Bagels on Smith Street, Oscar Tan (ex-chef de partie atGimlet) dishes up affordably priced Greek dishes from a blackboard menu that changes weekly, save for a couple of staples: crusty white bread (“a mix between baguette, focaccia and ciabatta,” says Tan), and taramasalata made with the leftovers of the house loaf.
Meaty mains could include a chicken steak, the thigh seared hard to create a crispy skin, or a slow-cooked lamb dish, with sides such as traditional Greek salad. Still to come: a liquor licence (expect Greek beers under $10) and courtyard dining.
8 Smith Street, Collingwood, instagram.com/the.pontian.club
Alpha Ouzeri, Brunswick
How often does a restaurant close, then reopen – elsewhere – more than a decade later? That’s exactly the path of chef Harry Tsiukardanis’s Alpha Ouzeri, which was born on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy in 2008, but now rises again on Victoria Street, Brunswick, taking over the former Small Axe Kitchen location.
True to its name, there’s a large selection of ouzo, the anise-flavoured drink, as well as a meze menu that channels Tsiukardanis’s hometown of Kastoria, in northern Greece. Among his specialties are grilled pork sausages spiced with harissa; triple-cooked pork belly with Iranian figs; and loukoumades, quintessentially Greek honey doughnuts.
281 Victoria Street, Brunswick, instagram.com/alphaouzeri
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