How do you beat Hellenic Republic's Cypriot grain salad and saganaki with peppered figs? The pressure will be on chef Josh Pelham (recently of Northcote's Estelle Bistro) to find a best-seller when he takes up the head chef role at Williamtown's long-awaited Hellenic Hotel.
The hotel, from George Calombaris' Made Establishment, is expected to open in mid-June – two years overdue.
Pelham, who has previously worked with Calombaris at Fenix and the Press Club, will start work at the end of April, collaborating with Calombaris and executive chef Travis McAuley on menu development.
The joint winner of The Age Good Food Guide 2015 Young Chef of the Year award says he's not going into the new role to revolutionise things. "It's about delivering value-for-money family-friendly food," he says. And yes, grain salad and saganaki have been such runaway successes they're likely to be on the Williamstown menu.
The Hellenic Hotel has involved an ambitious refurb of the 1909 Hobsons Bay Hotel, once home to Rosa Mitchell's restaurant Rosa's Kitchen. It is the third iteration of the popular Hellenic Republic group, which has branches in Brunswick East and Kew.
Downstairs will be a dining room serving modern Greek food and wine, seating 80 or 90, plus a takeaway outlet with a separate entrance.
Upstairs is a public bar and verandah with seating. In a hat-tip to the building's long history as a pub, they'll serve counter meal classics with a Greek influence Monday to Friday.
It is expected to be open noon-late daily from mid-June.
28 Ferguson Street, Williamstown, hellenicrepublic.com.au
