Between 1959 and 1975, the SS Patris transported thousands of migrants from Europe – predominantly Greece – to Australia. New Greek restaurant Patris is named after the ship Stella Michael’s mum, along with countless others, travelled on. It nods both to migration history and to the style of community-driven dining Michael and her husband and business partner, Johnny Hasan, are drawn to.
“It’s a lot of cooking that my grandfather grew up with,” says Michael. It’s centred around vegetarian and fish-forward dishes; the sort of food often overlooked when people think about Greek cuisine, despite Melbourne’s recent contemporary Greek restaurant wave.
Like many new Greek restaurants in Melbourne, much of the offering at Patris depends on seasonality and local producers. Meze and meson (meaning middle) form the backbone of the menu, spanning grilled halloumi with figs poached in commandaria, a Cypriot dessert wine; okra with caramelised onion and sumac; and eliopita, a Cypriot spiral bread threaded with olives, onion, parsley and mint.
“We don’t throw out much,” Hasan says. “We’re using lemon juice for sauce, then the lemon skin is going into the cocktails. I preserve [the piths] and then turn that into paste.”
For larger dishes, there’s whole baby snapper grilled over charcoal and served with capers and lemon sauce, and slow-cooked lamb shoulder with pomegranate glaze and zhug.
Items such as honey, fish and produce are sourced locally, with most ingredients made in-house. One of the few exceptions is olive oil, imported from Michael’s aunt’s press in Laconia. “I grew up having those oil cans sent to us,” she says. “I didn’t realise how spoiled I was.”
Drinks follow a similar approach, centred on cocktails that lean on local ingredients and offcuts from the kitchen, like the Ruby-Red Mastic (vodka, mastiha (a mastic-based liqueur), hibiscus, lime and green apple). There’s also a selection of minimal-intervention wines – whites from Greece and Crete, and reds from Australia.
Patris was originally conceived as a commercial kitchen where Hasan could manage catering operations and host workshops under his brand Chef Esto. The chef, originally from Bangladesh, previously owned Kuaizi Bar in the CBD before moving into catering and community work with organisations including The Big Umbrella Foundation and Jesuit Social Services.
But after a running series of pop-ups that started in May last year and encouragement from the community, the pair decided to open the space as a permanent restaurant, allowing diners to experience the food beyond one-off events. They transformed the site, formerly a cafe, into a bright, white diner that feels part restaurant, part family home. The dining room is informal, with second-hand mismatched tables and chairs that go heavy on the wicker and velveteen. A living-room-like lounge area is framed by a bookshelf. It’s near overflowing with culture and history-focused texts that, like the restaurant’s name, is testament to the duo’s passion for fostering cultural exchange.
Patris
140 Barkly Street, Brunswick
No phone
Hours:
Thu to Sat 6pm–10pm