St Gerry’s opens another loukoumades store in Oakleigh

A food truck slinging sweet Greek doughnuts will make its Covid comeback by opening a permanent store in Oakleigh this Friday.

Name a meal that will go gangbusters on delivery apps?

St Gerry’s food truck vendor Dean Giannakis’ loukoumades (Greek doughnuts) went so well in lockdown he’s opening a third store in Oakleigh South this Friday.

Giannakis hopes the move will “bulletproof” his business and lure back customers he once had in the area.

“I’m on the path of expanding my brand and I’m hoping to get a footprint back in the suburbs I used to be in,” he said.

Giannakis opened his first bricks and mortar store in Oakleigh’s Eaton Mall in 2017 but after two years of trade, a freak fire at a neighbouring restaurant destroyed the shop.

St Gerry's Loukoumades founder Dean Giannakis is opening another loukoumades store in Oakleigh East. Picture: Jason Edwards

St Gerry’s went back on the road until the pandemic hit, feeding the masses at big events such as Moomba and the Royal Melbourne Show, before nabbing a permanent space at Mordialloc’s Urban Ground food truck park in late 2019.

Covid cost St Gerry’s up to 120 permanent gigs, so Giannakis opened a small shop in Balaclava in 2020 and began selling his sweets on delivery apps.

St Gerry’s food truck took a hit during lockdown.

St Gerry’s Oakleigh South is his biggest venue to date, and sells 15 different loukoumades flavours while seating up to 25 people.

“Oakleigh kept pulling at the heartstrings. I’d set up a ghost kitchen in Springvale during lockdown and after closing that, I decided to set up another store in between both suburbs,” Giannakis said.

There’ll be new Greek-inspired rizogalo (rice pudding) and bougatsa (vanilla custard with filo) doughnuts, as well as Greek iced coffee, Butterbing cookies and Fresh Prince of Baklava sweets.

“We’re just wanting to have a lot of fun with this one,” Giannakis said.

St Gerry's Loukoumades. Picture: Jason Edwards

St Gerry’s, 1196 Centre Rd, Clarinda, weekdays 4-11pm, weekends 1-11pm stgerrys.com.au

MEXICAN MEETS DONCASTER

When you think “cool Melbourne restaurant”, chef Trent Whelan hopes his new eatery Chido Chido is in the mix.

After realising most were sticking to their patch post-lockdown, the Mercure Melbourne Doncaster hotel chef sussed out what the suburb’s food scene was missing before opening the modern Mexican restaurant late last year.

Chido Chido, which is Spanish for cool, is perched on the hotel’s third floor opposite Westfield Doncaster and with views of Melbourne’s city skyline.

“We recognised there was not a lot of competition with Mexican food in the area,” Whelan said.

Chido Chido is a Mexican restaurant that's opened in Doncaster Mercure.

Trent Whelan is Chido Chido’s executive chef.

Chido Chido has opened at Doncaster Mercure.

“We have seen a huge influx of people from the Asian community, as we share a similar flavour profile to that cuisine – spicy, hot and salty.”

Don’t expect a huge selection of burritos and tacos, Chido Chido is more of an elevated Latino dining experience.

“We do have a separate menu with the usual suspects, but we wanted to create modern Mexican in a modern space, using as much local produce as we can,” Whelan said.

Think pan-fried prawns with red onion and jalepeno or Cape Grim ribeye with corn puree, chimichurri, almond and chipotle salsa.

Tacos will be piled high with chicken and avo, prawns with lime caviar or stuffed with slow-braised pork.

Chido Chido, 6 Tower St, Doncaster, open daily for lunch and dinner. chidochido.com.au