Hatted Greek restaurant unveils plans for spin-off eatery in massive Cleveland St development

It feels like Greek week in Sydney, with hatted Potts Point restaurant The Apollo announcing a spin-off eatery, Olympus, and the local pioneer of modern Greek cuisine, Peter Conistis, confirming he’ll open Ammos at Brighton-le-Sands, on Friday, July 12.

Olympus will open in late 2024 at Wunderlich Lane, part of the massive Surry Hills development on the corner of Cleveland and Baptist streets, where LuMi chef Federico Zanellato and House Made Hospitality are also opening restaurants.

Apollo co-owner Jonathan Barthelmess says Olympus will chart its own path rather than replicate its siblings (The Apollo also has a Tokyo branch). “The food at Olympus will be more traditional and regional, inspired by recent trips around inland Greece. It will focus on the food of the mountains with a touch of Athenian attitude added to the mix,” he says.

Sydney is in the midst of a get-me-to-the-Greek food trend. A couple of blocks east of the incoming Olympus site, Sofia restaurant is a Mediterranean grill with Greek influences, and a Sydney chef is secretly working on an as-yet-unnamed project he says will be to Greek what Totti’s is to Italian.

Peter Conistis opens Ammos later this week, but the waterfront restaurant at Brighton-le-Sands isn’t his first Greek launch. The chef, who recently left Alpha, has run a string of venues going back to Cosmos restaurant in east Sydney in 1993.

“Cosmos was the first hatted Greek restaurant in the Good Food Guide,” says Conistis, a pioneer of modern Greek who put dishes such as moussaka of scallop and eggplant on the map. The chef says he’s excited by the current explosion of Greek restaurants.

But what’s driving the current push? Sydney has a long and steady history with the cuisine and also Greek food of the faster variety. In 2012, Kostas Tomaras and business partner Poppy Papadopoulos purchased The Yeeros Shop, a staple of Marrickville’s Little Athens since 1968, and the duo recently added an Annandale venue. Tomaras says the uptick in Australians travelling to Greece has helped drive the taste for authentic Greek food.

“We’ve noticed that even the non-Greeks are coming to the shop and pronouncing ‘yeeros’ as ‘yeeros’, instead of ‘giros’,” Tomaras says.

“The cuisine itself is so diverse, and this is why we think it’s currently booming. Not only is it delicious, but the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest alternatives out there: high in protein, filled with vegetables, and there is an option for everyone from vegans and vegetarians to meat eaters.”