Coming Soon: The Timing Is Perfect for Homer, the Shire’s New Athenian Taverna

Australians are looking to Athens as a standalone travel destination more than ever before. Our hottest chefs are popping up in the city’s wine bars and hospo tastemakers are sharing their go-tos – Buffet Digital’s Sophie McComas says the city’s “ renaissance era is now ”. This new destination-of-the-moment arrives at a time when our dining scenes – notably in Sydney and Melbourne – are awash with new Greek joints of all sorts. Next up for the Harbour City is Homer Rogue Taverna, opening in Cronulla next month.

“We’ve been wanting to do this for many, many years – it’s nice it’s finally happening now,” Harry Kapoulas, who co-owns longstanding Cronulla cafe Ham with his brother Mario Kapoulas, tells Broadsheet. “There’s been a huge gap for it, but we were waiting for the right spot to come up. A new development just finished around the corner from Ham, and it was just perfect timing.”

The small opening team dined around Athens last summer. “We just ate at all the modern tavernas,” Harry says. “It was awesome. Older-school places as well, some koutoukia, which are like a step below a taverna. We tried a lot of old-school stuff, which we grew up with, but we wanted to just push it a little bit and see what people are doing with Greek food in Athens at the moment. It blew us away, to be honest. I actually got a lot more out of it than I expected.”

The team briefed AP Design House on a “gritty” city aesthetic – not the cliched coastal-inspired blues and whites. “We wanted something that looked like it had been there for, you know, a hundred years, but still modern. I didn’t want to do something cute, too staged, too design-y, if that makes sense.”

There’ll be terrazzo floors, mid-century lighting and space for 100 across a mix of new and vintage furniture – for a “worn” look – in one big room. A bar will run along the back wall (not separated from the dining room), with an open kitchen in another corner. A few counter seats will look into the kitchen too, and passersby will be able to see in from the street.

“We want to make people feel like they’re being entertained the whole time. From the time you walk in, you feel like you’re a part of the kitchen and the bar.”

A custom fridge is stocked with a 50-50 split of Greek and Aussie wines, with a healthy by-the-glass offering. “A big thing we’re pulling out of Athens was every cool place that we went to that we loved had a fridge in the dining room full of their wine. They got you up off your seat, took you to the wine fridge, and talked about the wine. Everything was labelled, almost like you’re in a bottle shop.”

A “super-duper casual” menu is ripe for sharing. A few dips to start – including the spicy, cheesy tirokafteri, Harry’s favourite – and flatbreads straight out of a pizza oven. Hand-rolled dolmades come dressed in zesty avgolemono, and a charcoal lava rock grill will pump out “all your meats” and skewers. A line-up of stews and pastas will include youvetsi (pulled lamb) and spanakorizo, the classic side dish of rice that’ll be served as a main with fish at Homer.

“Greek dining at its core is a place where people go to eat and enjoy each other’s company, drink some wine and go home. And they do it five days a week in Athens. That’s the vibe that we want to create in Cronulla.”

Homer Rogue Taverna will open at 3/3 Surf Road, Cronulla, on Tuesday August 5, 2025.

@homer.cronulla