Coming Soon: Glen Iris Lands Bar Sophia From the Marameo Team

When Broadsheet wrote about Glen Iris’s Grazia opening new takeaway spot Grazia D’Asporto this week, one Instagram commenter dubbed the block the “Milan end of Burke Road”.

It was an apt description, with Italian wine bar Riserva and sibling shop Breadcetera around the corner from Grazia and its new panini- and pizza-focused sibling.

But soon the area will be more Mediterranean than Milan. In November, restaurateurs Michael Badr and Marco Tenuta of the CBD’s easy-going Italian spot Marameo , will open Bar Sophia in a former bottle shop next to Grazia. Rather than lean into the block’s Italian spirit, the venue – named for Badr’s wife – will be an “elegant and refined” (as Badr puts it) Greek wine bar.

Nicholas Deligiannis, who has held executive chef roles at Scott Pickett’s Sorrento restaurant Audrey’s and Melbourne Place restaurant Mid Air, will hold the same title here. The menu is “not your traditional Greek restaurant souvlakis,” Badr tells Broadsheet. Much like many of Melbourne’s new Greek wave venues including the Hot-Listed Taverna , Bar Sophia is largely inspired by Athenian wine bars.

There’ll be no gas in the kitchen, with all dishes prepared in the woodfired oven by Samuel Fraraccio, aka The Brick Chef. The menu will be largely seafood and vegetable heavy, bolstered by some meat dishes. Badr’s betting on the house-made flatbreads being the crowd favourite. There’ll be whole-roasted fish-of-the-day, baked scallops and pork skewers served alongside a wide range of mostly Greek wines. “I definitely wouldn’t say it’s traditional, but it’s paying homage to the Athenian wine bar.”

Bar Sophia will take over the ground floor of the two-storey site, which has been “gutted”. Come November, it will have a 45-seat dining room and a 12-seat bar at the front for walk-ins, because “you can never get a booking at the other places [on the block].”

Bar Sophia is expected to open at 161 Burke Road, Glen Iris in November 2025.