First Look: Bar Sophia Arrives in Glen Iris With Woodfired Greek Food and House-Made Halloumi

The Athenian Riviera is home to the ancient Temple of Poseidon, beautiful beaches and now a pumping food and drink scene, featuring Michelin stars and listening bars. The region is breaking the old taverna mould, pouring natural wine beside turntables and delivering high-end hospitality with a contemporary edge that’s influencing dining culture worldwide and especially in Melbourne. 

Michael Badr, a co-owner of CBD Italian spot Marameo, has clocked the current. A frequent visitor to Greece, he decided to bring that modern Greek beachside wine-bar energy to Glen Iris. He’s opened Bar Sophia – named in tribute to his wife – with co-owner Marco Tenuta of Marameo and Il Bacaro. It’s a moody neighbourhood restaurant that complements the largely Italian dining strip and joins Melbourne’s new Greek wave. 

The restaurant sits in the old Burke Road bottle shop 161 Cellars, gutted in May and transformed into a 45-seat dining room with a 12-seat front bar. “We want to showcase what Greek food is really about,” Badr says. “Not only the traditional stuff, but refined with elegance, sophistication and premium hospitality.” The bar is designed for flexibility. “You can walk in off the street for a snack or come with a group and settle into the dining room.” 

There’s no gas on site, but that didn’t faze the team. Through an open window into the kitchen, you can see the chefs at work on the woodfired oven that gives the restaurant its identity. Head chef Nick Deligiannis, formerly of Audrey’s in Sorrento, is familiar with this kind of cooking. “I grew up in my parents’ pizza shop, Zach’s Pizza in Bentleigh, so I’ve cooked with woodfire my whole life,” he says. 

The menu starts with house-made flatbread topped with grated kefalotyri (a tangy Greek goat’s cheese) and small plates like Shark Bay scallops and pork neck skewers. Larger dishes include New Zealand yellowbelly flounder with Urfa butter and Loddon Valley spatchcock. A standout is the orzo with Moreton Bay bug, saffron and leek. Deligiannis also makes haloumi in-house using Gippsland Jersey milk. “It’s like a marshmallow,” he says. “Not that rubbery texture everyone knows.”  

Desserts stay classic: seasonal candied fruit with yoghurt and cinnamon doughnuts finished with olive oil and salted caramel. 

The wine list is overseen by winemaker and beverage director Steve Kimonides. It highlights Greece, Sicily and Georgia – “the cradle of civilisation,” he says – with some small Aussie producers such as Scintilla Wines in McLaren Vale and Kimonides’s own Stelios Kimonides. The restaurant is fully licensed, so you can take a bottle home. Cocktails include a house Martini made with Votanikon gin from Greece. Kimonides also has a sweet collection of vinyl he’ll soon be spinning at the bar. Expect funk, Italo disco and, of course, some Greek classics.

Bar Sophia
161 Burke Road, Glen Iris 
(03) 9003 6000

Hours:
Tue to Sun midday – late

barsophia.com.au 
@barsophia.melbourne