The Pontian Club on Smith Street is great value
Pontian Club, a new Greek restaurant at the city end of Smith Street, is extremely good value.
Greek$
Sometimes you come across a place that makes running a restaurant so simple that you wonder how and why it could be complicated. Food is cooked, brought to the table, people eat, there is some kind of energy exchange – of course there is money – and everyone feels happy and fond of humanity. This is The Pontian Club: a new Greek restaurant on the city end of Smith Street.
The tone of voice is adjusted when you enter. At the end of the dining room is an open kitchen; You see the glow of coal, the quick, steady choreography of the chefs, hot red peppers, a cool pool of herbs. Here and in one of the back rooms, there are weathered brick walls covered with old family photos.
The tables and chairs tell tender stories, too: They’re from The Old Raffles Place, a Singaporean restaurant that recently closed on Johnston Street (and now lives in a space as big as Mary’s).
There’s a rawness in the paper tablecloths, the glasses of wine or ouzo, the lively, smiling floor crew that makes the service obvious: isn’t it just a matter of observing and caring?
Friends Alessandro Brunetti (landscape architect turned waiter) and Bertie Pavlidis (formerly of Donati’s Fine Meats, a dedicated Carlton butcher) were hoping to recreate the fun, beer-filled times they had in Athens. They started cooking for friends at the Pontian Club in Brunswick. He recruited a friend, up-and-coming chef Oscar Tan, then Gimlet, and transformed barbecues for friends into flashier pop-ups.
Earlier in the year this store appeared on Smith Street. The men took the keys to take a look, and over the next few weeks they half-dreamily began scrubbing the walls, picking up hard rubbish to spruce up the place, and getting to know each other better. Somehow they built a restaurant.
There is no simpler menu in Melbourne. It is about 12 words long, only one for each dish: eggplant, lamb, fish, salad. Brevity creates a mood. You either put all your trust in the kitchen team or you establish a bond with your waiter as they describe. Not that there’s much to say.
Letting simple ingredients shine is all about fireline, salt, lemon, olive oil and love.
Eggplant is roasted over charcoal and mashed with wine vinegar, olive oil, thyme and parsley grown by Bertie’s mother (Age gardening writer Megan Backhouse; his father Have a nice weekend illustrator Jim Pavlidis).
Fava beans are fried with caramelized onions and capers are added. You’ll need bread: the house loaf is a crusty, ciabatta-focaccia hybrid laced with bush honey.
Grilled lamb loin, drizzled in vinegar for shine, is paired with tzatziki: you’ll find these under a shower of herbs. Fish (usually rock flathead) is a little more complex, pan-fried with buttery fish broth. But overall it’s about letting simple ingredients shine, fire line, salt, lemon, olive oil and love.
Bertie’s and Al’s mothers make the cakes, and there’s a slight competition over which sells better: olive oil cake or bay leaf and ricotta cake (there’s both: let’s have a draw).
The Victorian wine list includes Greek grape varieties; I drank ouzo and it felt right.
Pontians are Anatolian Greeks, many of whom were expelled from Türkiye’s Black Sea coast, their homeland since ancient times, during their forced repatriation after the Greco-Turkish War in the early 1920s. Many Pontians later came to Australia. Pavlidis thinks his papou may have been Pontic, but this trio of young proprietors was adopted, although little use was made of the local community. So why not? The experience is fascinating and extremely good value: this is the place to eat.
Down
Atmosphere: Social, cheerful, happy
Dishes to use: Eggplant ($15); bread ($5-$10); fava ($12); Lamb ($32)
Beverages: The shortlist includes some very good indie Victorian wine, as well as the red variety xinomavro, which has been transformed into an elegant, light-hearted spirit by Greek winemaker Apostolos Thymiopoulos, who makes wonderful new wines using old methods. But maybe you prefer Alfa beer or a glass of ouzo?
Cost: $90 for two people excluding drinks
This review was first published on: Have a nice weekend magazine
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