Angie Giannakodakis can still recall the smell of her mum’s moussaka wafting through their apartment block when she was a kid. It’s a cherished memory that has stayed with her throughout her career as a foundational staff member at The Press Club, at Hellenic Republic, Elyros and Epocha, which she co-owned with Guy Holder until it shut late last year due to landlord issues.
When her mum went into care last year, Giannakodakis felt a renewed urgency to preserve those beloved family recipes for future generations.
“It made me quite anxious thinking, ‘Who’s going to know what my mum’s moussaka tastes like if she’s gone and no one eats it ever again?’” she says. “There’s this whole generation that could miss out on our parents’ and grandparents’ cuisine [if] we’re not able to pass on knowledge.”
We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.
SIGN UPEnter Taverna, a homey Greek restaurant that Giannakodakis co-owns with Holder. Originally conceived as a pop-up at Epocha, the restaurant now has a permanent location in the former Hellenic Republic space in Brunswick East, a venue Giannakodakis helped launch years ago.
The venue comes as Melbourne sees a new wave of casual Greek restaurants including Tzaki, Kafenion and Astoria Bar Ke Grill.
“The resurgence of Greek cuisine is timely as far as how people perceive ingredients and simplicity, and how they want to dine day-to-day,” says Giannakodakis.
For her, that means celebrating the region’s legacy as a Blue Zone (a region where locals have above-average live expectancies) and its long tradition of simple, whole-food cooking. At Taverna, she embraces this philosophy by focusing on whole-food dishes simply prepared, much like the local tavernas in Athens where mothers and grandmothers often helm the kitchens. (Here the kitchen is led by co-head chefs, Vanesa Colmenares, formerly of Epocha, and Michael Carins.)
While there are pork skewers, slow-cooked lamb shoulder and 500-gram T-bones, roughly half of the menu is vegetarian.
“We’re playing to the strengths of the cuisine,” says Giannakodakis. “It’s about returning to that feeling of going back home to Greece and having really good, simple food that makes you feel alive.”
Small, soft spirals of house-baked olive oil bread are served by the basket, designed to mop up creamy fava dip with capers and shallots, or melitzanosalata, a smoky eggplant puree. There’s dakos, a traditional take on a Greek salad piled onto a barley rusk, and revithokeftedes, crisp chickpea and herb fritters served simply with a wedge of lemon. Moussaka, inspired by Giannakodakis’s mum’s recipe, will also work its way onto the menu seasonally.
Desserts are an opportunity to highlight regional variations from around Greece. The bougatsa, a flaky pastry filled with custard, is made in the Cretan style with mizithra, a tangy Greek whey cheese, and will later shift to reflect styles from Thessaloniki or Athens. The ekmek sundae features house-made mastic ice-cream, melon sorbet and sour cherry, while a simple slice of watermelon pays homage to Giannakodakis’s dining experiences in Greece.
“Sometimes you just don’t want any dessert, but you just want a piece of fruit,” she says, remembering Cretan meals where a slice of watermelon was often the only sweet note of the evening. “It’s simple and silly, but if we don’t have it then we’re not really playing our role as a tavern.”
Taverna’s liquor licence is still in the works, but Giannakodakis has big plans for the venue’s wine room at the front of the restaurant, which she describes as a “yiayia’s room” because of its warm wood tones and vintage spice racks. A wine list of more than 300 bottles will predominantly feature Greek wines with an emphasis on female-owned labels. In the meantime, there are non-alcoholic beers, watermelon cucumber mocktails, and an almond and aniseed-based ouzo alternative.
Taverna
434 Lygon Street, Brunswick East
Hours:
Mon to Fri 5pm–late
Sat & Sun midday–late