Tom Sarafian’s First Restaurant Opens Next Week – Here’s What To Expect

When Broadsheet visits Zareh, Tom Sarafian’s first restaurant is two weeks out from opening and already filled with the enticing scent of za’atar. But not just any version of the versatile spice mix. Za’atar is one of the products Sarafian and his partner Jinane Bou-Assi have imported from Droubna, a family-run producer in Lebanon.

“There’s nothing wrong with the commercial stuff that’s always been available here,” says Sarafian. “But this just takes it to a whole other level.” Other products, including olives, mulberry jam, oak honey and ground spices, are used in the dishes at Zareh and available to buy from a small retail section. “These are all our secret ingredients on display.”

The Collingwood restaurant has been years in the making and will (finally) open to the public on Wednesday August 20. The last time Sarafian led a kitchen was at Bar Saracen, a Covid casualty replaced by Circl Wine House. Since then, he’s become one of the city’s most beloved chefs thanks to a luxe hummus brand and a constant stream of pop-ups in venues including Lee Ho Fook, Anchovy, Bar Bellamy and almost every other venue in Melbourne worth knowing.

Sarafian says the driving forces behind the food at Zareh are Armenian and Lebanese flavours – nods to his and Bou-Assi’s respective heritages – as well as the Armenian diaspora “which is huge.” After years of jumping into other people’s kitchens, finally having a space of his own has been conducive to creativity. Sarafian’s signature hummus will be on the menu, as well as a number of wholly new dishes and drinks designed by Matt Linklater (former general manager at The Black Pearl). “We have so many ideas,” Sarafian says. “We can’t do it all at once, so this is what we’re going to start with.” Here are three menu highlights to look out for when Zareh opens next week.

Tuna brik

Tom Sarafian: This is a traditional Tunisian dish. It’s a paper-thin pastry filled with potatoes that have been crushed and seasoned with a spice blend called ras el hanout, which is very popular in North Africa. It’s seasoned potatoes with fresh herbs, some capers, harissa and fresh tuna, confit in olive oil, that goes on top with raw egg. It’s folded and then fried-to-order, seasoned a little bit with more harissa on the side and some fresh lemon.

Bastourma toast

Sarafian: Bastourma is an Armenian dried beef. It’s spiced cured beef. There’s a sauce called chemen, which means fenugreek – and it’s the most dominant spice in the sauce. It’s also mixed with lots of garlic, paprika, pepper, a little bit of chilli, and that coats the cured beef, and then dried, so it becomes a crust on the beef. The idea of this dish is that at every Armenian meal, you’ll always have heaps of fresh herbs on the table, fresh cheese, pepper and the bastourma. So this is all of those things on a piece of seeded sourdough beautifully toasted over charcoal. With tarragon, dill, basil, chives and sweet herbs tossed through some fresh cheese curd, with barbequed marinated red bullhorn peppers on top of that, and a slice of bastema, you can kind of get all those flavours in one bite.

Zareh Gilda Martini

Matt Linklater: In the beginning, I had this idea to put some arak [an anise-flavoured spirit] into the Martini, and the louching effect would happen in front of people’s eyes – kind of like a blooming flower. I didn’t think it could work, so I just forgot about it and made a really good Martini with Cedar Fox gin, bianco vermouth and just a spoon of Marionette curacao.

Then we thought, “Let’s just try out the Martini with a little bit of arak [for taste].” It tasted pretty good, so we put a little bit more in and ended up with quite a bit of arak. The Martini will be quite full because you have to have big flavours when you’re working with arak. And you’ll be able to see the louching effect … there’s a lot of theatre happening in the glass.

Zareh opens at 368 Smith Street, Collingwood on Wednesday August 20. Bookings are now open.