Beloved Middle Eastern food store Babajan suddenly closed both its outlets last Friday with owner-chef Kirsty Chiaplias saying her business has been heavily affected by the cost of living crisis.

“We pushed as hard as we could through tram works, footpath works, the impact of floods and bushfires, COVID, rising costs, cost of living rises but unfortunately the current economic downturn is the last straw,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “It is with huge sadness that I have decided to close the doors.”

Chiaplias opened Babajan in 2016 on Nicholson Street in Carlton North. Of Greek heritage, she previously cooked at Collingwood’s Alimentari and owned city lunch spot Workers’ Food Room. Her launch partner at Babajan was Ismail Tosun, now at Miksa Food Truck in Campbellfield, and the food showed his Turkish influence, too.

The pretty corner store, with its jade external tiling and timber feature windows, drew diners for baked eggs, lamb kofte, simit (sesame-crusted Turkish bread rings), baba ghanoush and an excellent hummus. Pastries were always a feature: boreks, halloumi pie and sucuk-stuffed pide would be lined up on the counter. Sweet treats included fragrant Persian love cake.

Bountiful salad bowls might have included braised beans with roasted carrots, or broccoli, zucchini, avocado and zhoug piled high. Fans crossed town for the Aleppo toastie, a Turkish bread press of spiced eggplant, sumac and sheep’s milk cheese.

“Everyone says, ‘Babajan is so great, you are so busy, you must be making so much money’, but we weren’t.”

Babajan owner-chef Kirsty Chiaplias

Babajan went through various iterations – expanding into dinner service for a time, retreating to daytime trade and then, during the pandemic, ditching dining-in altogether, even when Melbourne reopened.

Chiaplias spoke about the challenges of running her business at a panel discussion at Worksmith hospitality hub in 2022. “What you want to do, you can’t always do in business,” she said. “We were losing money. Everyone says, ‘Babajan is so great, you are so busy, you must be making so much money’, but we weren’t. The costs were outweighing the revenue.”

Chiaplias opened a city venue in March but trade was hampered by slow CBD trade. Babajan mark two was at the Spring Street end of Little Collins Street, just a block away from Pope Joan, which closed with sizeable debts in August.

“The city is proving to be such a tremendous challenge,” said co-owner David Mackintosh at the time. “Daytime cafe business feels permanently different in the city now.”

The last time Melburnians were able to sit down in a hospitality setting to eat Chiaplias’s generous and delicious food was in March 2022 at the World’s Longest Brunch, a signature event at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Chiaplias was alongside chefs Shane Delia and Joseph Abboud to present the Middle Eastern morning banquet. She served a yoghurt and olive oil cake with apples, cashew cream and sesame brittle.

“Kirsty knows how to cook food that really satisfies,” says Abboud, who is moving Rumi to East Brunswick Village in November. “I love her sophistication as a chef. I can’t wait to see what she does next.”