Chris Lucas To Open His First Greek Restaurant, Noema, in the CBD This Spring

For years, people have wondered why Chris Lucas, the Greek Australian restaurateur behind some of Melbourne’s most lavish dining rooms, has never opened a venue reflecting his Greek heritage. And now, after opening restaurants such as Southeast Asian-inspired Chin Chin, French dining destination Maison Batard, and Japanese spots Yakimono, Kisume and Tombo Den, he finally will.

This spring, Lucas will open his 15th restaurant, Noema, at the base of a new 48-storey, $1.1 billion tower at 435 Bourke Street, alongside his upcoming Hong Kong-inspired restaurant Wishbone.

“I’ve been asked by umpteen people for years why I haven’t opened a Greek restaurant, and I never really had a proper answer,” he says.

Part of it was rebellion. “I’ve always wanted to do what is not the obvious thing.” But there was also the fact that he didn’t think Melbourne was quite ready. Despite being home to one of the world’s largest Greek diaspora communities, he thinks the cuisine has only recently entered the mainstream.

“I’ve always, in some ways, waited for Greek food to get to this point where it’s seen as a legitimate form of modern eating,” he says.

He recalls his father’s pub in Geelong, where the Greek dishes were often overlooked in favour of more British-style food. Today, he says, the perception has shifted dramatically.

Lucas points to Athens – “one of the hottest food destinations in the world at the moment” – where returning Greek expatriates have helped push the cuisine forward. Ripples from this have been seen in Melbourne’s recent wave of new Greek restaurants. He also cites restaurants such as Estiatorio Milos in New York, Avra in Los Angeles and Gaia in London as examples of Greek dining finding a more sophisticated expression on the global stage.

The food at Noema will focus on what Lucas calls “elegant simplicity”: seafood and meat cooked over charcoal, in a wood oven or on a rotisserie, alongside pulses, vegetables and salads inspired by the food his parents grew up eating. Olive oil will be sourced from Salonika, while organic oregano will come from the hills around Athens.

“I didn’t want to do your typical taverna-type restaurant,” he says. “There are a lot of those around, and they do a great job.”

The two-storey restaurant’s design – by Lucas, his wife Sarah Lucas and interior architecture and design studio Mitchell & Eades – follows a similar philosophy. It steers clear of cliché in favour of timber, tile, leather and linen, with olive trees framing the entrance. Curved windows at the facade, designed by the Lucases and Bates Smarts, are meant to resemble Mediterranean boats.

Named after the Greek word for a thought, concept or object of contemplation, Noema reflects Lucas’s heritage and upbringing. “It’s thinking about what it was like growing up as a young Greek guy in a Greek family where food used to be everything,” he says. “My contemplation of what it’s been like growing up in a city full of Greeks, and my time going back there. This is probably the most personal experience I’ve ever had with a restaurant.”

Noema will open at 435 Bourke Street this spring.