George Calombaris takes Hellenic Republic down a healthy path
It's a problem that could easily keep George Calombaris awake at night: what do you do for an encore now that Cypriot grain salad has become one of Melbourne's best-loved dishes?
The chef-restaurateur and his team are devising healthy dishes for the latest offshoot of Calombaris's Hellenic Republic chain, Hellenic Republic Brighton, which drawns inspiration from the classic Greek taverna, using textural elements such as marine rope, blackened steel and blue and white terrazzo.
Working with La Trobe University, they're developing the Hellenic Health menu based on the Mediterranean diet, with a 4:1 ratio of plant-based foods to meat, and the evidence to back up the claimed benefits. Calombaris hopes other restaurants will apply the HH stamp to dishes that earn the tick of approval.
They'll road-test the new dishes at Hellenic Republic in Kew before adding them to the Brunswick, Williamstown and Brighton menus, alongside signatures such as the Cypriot grain salad, molten kefalograviera cheese with peppered figs, and chips with feta and oregano.
Hellenic Republic Brighton will open on December 15 at 25-27 Church Street, Brighton.
Calombaris and his Made restaurant group are juggling other new ventures, opening three branches of his Jimmy Grants souvlaki chain within a week (one at Chadstone and two in Sydney), and doors open in St Kilda in late November.
And on November 21, his flagship Press Club restaurant introduces a la carte alongside the degustation menu, and will extend its opening hours, serving lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday and lunch on Sunday.
Calombaris says the changes represent an ideological shift from fine dining to "accessible luxury" at the Flinders Lane restaurant, now in its 11th year.
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Roslyn Grundy is Good Food's deputy editor and the former editor of The Age Good Food Guide.