Miznon Collingwood

Eyal Shani, the MasterChef Israel judge and restaurant mogul behind pita-focused Israeli street food eatery Miznon (meaning “kiosk” in Hebrew), is heading to Collingwood.

Head chef and partner Afik Gal and the Miznon team have had the keys to the new site at 45 Derby Street since August 2023, but didn’t start renovating the space until March due to a series of setbacks with builders.

But Gal tells Broadsheet we can expect Miznon Collingwood to finally open this July.

He says the venue will be “less of a restaurant, more of a hangout space” and will have a different feel from the CBD location, which largely caters to the city lunch crowd.

The menu will feature the same pitas the city location is known for, including the cauliflower with tahini and salsa, and the rotisserie chicken with sour cream numbers. Come dinnertime, there’ll be some bar dishes, but the idea is that people will be able to have their own pita.

Expect a greater emphasis on the drinks list than at the city location too. Gal plans to create a wine list focused on small vineyards and offer a selection of beers and cocktails.

The venue will have an open kitchen in the middle of the dining room; “the kitchen is the centre of gravity there,” he says. There’ll be room for up to 60 diners inside and seats outside on Derby Street.

“I want it to be a beacon in the dark,” says Gal. “When you're wandering the side streets of Collingwood, suddenly you see this place and you're drawn to it with the music, wine, lights…”

While Collingwood will be just the second Miznon location in Australia, the venue is part of a group of locations in cities including New York, London, Paris and Tel Aviv from celebrity chef and Masterchef Israel judge Eyal Shani and his business partner and Miznon content director Shachar Segal. Gal helped open the first Miznon 13 years ago in Tel Aviv and the Hardware Lane location, currently the only Aussie outpost, in 2017.

Miznon Collingwood is expected to open at 45 Derby Street in July 2024.