Hellenika owner Simon Gloftis has one of the most expensive and celebrated fish in the country tattooed on his arm
Gold Coast restaurant mogul Simon Gloftis is so dedicated to detail he spent the price of a car on octopus to secure a regular supply of top-quality seafood from local fishermen
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THERE are chefs and restaurateurs who boast about their commitment to the “finest quality produce”, then there’s Simon Gloftis.
With a tattoo of one of the most expensive and celebrated fish in the country, a king george whiting, branding his right forearm, he once flew across the country and forked out a heart-fluttering $28,000 on South Australian octopus, just to secure a deal to stock the best squid in Australia at his first restaurant, Greek eatery Hellenika on the Gold Coast.
“The restaurant hadn’t opened yet and the fisherman, they didn’t trust me so I had to go buy 1000kg of octopus at $28/kg – that’s $28,000 that I had to pay these fisherman to sell it to me rather than send it Sydney or Melbourne,” he recounts, eyes wide, almost gobsmacked at his own exuberant extremism.
“That’s how crazy I am about it.”
But it’s that combination of idealistic passion and assertive risk-taking driven by his adoration – or obsession – for all things food, which has seen the 38-year-old open a head-spinning four venues in less than a year – three of which have made this year’s annual delicious 100 restaurant guide in The Sunday Mail.
The first to open – or rather reopen – was Hellenika at Nobby Beach after a considerable renovation to the eight-year-old restaurant, followed by the launch of new rooftop dining destination Bar Hellenika upstairs; the flashy Nineteen at the Star in the Gold Coast casino, and his latest venture, Hellenika Brisbane – crowned this year’s most delicious restaurant in Queensland.
Not a bad achievement when you consider he was completely self-taught in the kitchen and his first foray into cooking was a corn-on-the-cob stall at Brisbane’s Rocklea Markets he started with a $2000 loan from his dad at age 16.
“I was working in the food van there (at the markets) bucketing chips and then I got my dad to help me buy these pots so I could start selling corn on the cob,” he says.
“I just wanted to sell something and make money as a kid. I was making more money on that Sunday morning selling corn on the cob than I could have all week – it was amazing.”
And though he didn’t know it at the time, it was there that his love of food ignited.
Born in Melbourne to a Greek father and Polish mother, he grew up surrounded by food. Despite his dad not knowing even how to boil pasta, his Greek grandmother was an excellent home cook and living with the family she would teach his mother traditional Greek recipes, while Gloftis watched on.
Never one for school, he dropped out in year 10, and began working at a golf course by day, while at night he washed dishes at a neighbourhood Italian restaurant in Robina on the Gold Coast.
Quickly promoted to pizza topper and pasta twirler, he found he had a natural affinity for cooking, which then saw him buy a small cafe in Broadbeach with his older brother Jason, which he would sell after a year. He used the money to open two more cafes in his early 20s, before deciding it was time to get a “real job” and do a real estate course.
“I’d be going home at night and I was supposed to be studying my course and I’d be looking at cookbooks so I realised food was sort of my thing,” he says with a subconscious stroke of his left forearm, inked with a tattoo of an intertwined rustic knife, fork and spoon. While, his rolled up white shirt hides his third and most precious culinary marking – his paternal grandmother’s chicken soup recipe written out in full.
And with that realisation, he embraced his roots and decided to open Hellenika – a first-of-its-kind dedication to real Greek food on the Gold Coast.
To ensure its authenticity he travelled to Greece and spent time where his father grew up in the north of the country, learning classic recipes and about the importance of quality produce. And it was there he committed to – no matter what the cost – only ever using the best ingredients he could find.
And with that he returned to Australia, spent the price of a family car on octopus, and opened his “baby” Hellenika Gold Coast in March 2010.
“It was tough,” he says. “We opened up in the middle of basically a financial crisis, in Nobby Beach, which is just a little strip of shops, on the Gold Coast serving Greek shared food, which had never been done before.
“Nobby’s used to have a needle exchange just around the corner. It shouldn’t have worked.”
But it did.
From the get-go the restaurant was doing 250-300 covers every Saturday night as those from far and wide flocked to enjoy the authentic, clean flavours of the Mediterranean.
“Out of everything I’ve done that’s still my proudest because from there Gold Coast dining changed,” he says.
And driving that change was not just Hellenika, but Gloftis’s second restaurant, The Fish House at Burleigh Heads.
The tiny 60-seater with views to Surfers Paradise was a fine dining standout in a market dominated by surf clubs and burger joints.
Serving the highest quality, freshest fish flown in from all over Australia, it was recognised by some of the country’s best food critics; while big name celebrities flooded the venue with everyone from The Rock and Johnny Depp to Hugh Jackman and The Rolling Stones becoming regular diners.
It also made Gloftis a well-known name on the Coast, something he is humble about but appreciative for.
“I suppose it took away the, ‘he’s a Greek boy who just opened a Greek restaurant’,” he says.
In 2016 he then made the difficult decision to sell The Fish House to use the funds to renovate Hellenika at Nobby Beach and build the rooftop bar he had dreamed of for the past eight years.
“It was sad to see it go, and now I can’t go in there – it’s like an ex-girlfriend, I’ve just got to forget about it,” he jokes.
But saying goodbye to the Burleigh restaurant then kick started his next project, Nineteen at the Star – a flashy restaurant at Broadbeach’s Star Casino he co-owns with nightclub king Billy Cross.
Another restaurant in the delicious. 100, Nineteen also follows Gloftis’s dedication to using only the best quality produce available – think export grade Kiwami wagyu where a 400g steak will set you back an eye-twitching $240.
But it’s his latest venture, Hellenika Brisbane, which truly brings a smile to the entrepreneur’s face.
“Every time I talk about Hellenika at The Calile it gives me goosebumps,” he gushes as he admiringly looks around the restaurant from his window seat at the taverna-style detailing encompassing terrazzo floors and grey marble to blond timber tables and wicker chairs.
Set in the retro, Miami-inspired The Calile Hotel in James St, Fortitude Valley, it’s where Hellenika Brisbane “belongs”, says Gloftis.
Having searched Brisbane for around five years for a site to open the 2.0 version of his beloved Gold Coast restaurant, the white bricked building from brothers Michael and Cal Malouf was a natural fit.
“If someone said pick your spot in Brisbane, this would be it, so I got the dream,” Gloftis says – a cat-that-got-the-cream smile rippling across his sun-lit face.
And now he’s working himself to the bone to ensure the dream meets reality.
With the restaurant on the pool level of the luxury property, Gloftis has moved in upstairs so he is never more than an elevator ride away to sort an issue.
He’s transferred some of his key staff up from the venue on the Gold Coast to inject warmth and “heart and soul” into the restaurant – qualities he believes are key to Hellenika’s appeal.
“In the long run Hellenika is here to stay and it’s a proper restaurant,” he says, vehemently tapping the table. “We’re not a taverna, we have a 500-strong wine list – 50 from Greece alone. We have four sommeliers just looking after the wine list. We’re doing everything properly and we’re doing the long play. We’re here for the long term and we’re doing it right.”
And for Gloftis that often means sleepless nights and endless stress. But it’s become almost an addiction he can’t live without.
“I’ve got 250 people a week who rely on me to make sure that they can feed their families, so their kids can go to school, they can put petrol in their cars and that’s where my responsibility lies, and that’s what I take really seriously,” he says. “It is a lot of pressure … but I enjoy it.”
For now Gloftis’s full attention is on making Hellenika Brisbane the success he’s longed for, but says, who knows, another incarnation may be on the cards.
If not, we may just see him follow his other dream – to open his own hotel.
“If money was no object, I’d own hotels. I think I’d be able to bring something to a hotel that maybe a lot of hoteliers might not be able to and that’s the hospitality behind it all,” he says with a warmly.
One thing is for certain though, whatever Gloftis does next, his hard work, determination and passion to be the best at everything he does will ensure it’s a success.
‘No apology’ for controversial development approvals
A defiant Meaghan Scanlon says she’s unapologetic for her controversial interventions into the Gold Coast housing market. FIND OUT WHY
Authorities quizzed on stiff penalties for crude vandals
Authorities have been pressed on what consequences await the vandals behind the shocking defacement of trees along Burleigh’s Oceanview track, which drew a larger-than-usual crowd on Sunday morning.