Overview
Greek street food fans have reason to throw down a solid jig today, Sydney's Zeus Street Greek is opening a South Brisbane instalment. The souvlaki specialists will open at South Bank at the Chocolate Pavilion, scheduled to open on Saturday, June 20.
Founded by a patriotic team of first-generation Hellenic Australians (a formidable collaboration between the team behind Crust Gourmet Pizza and Pony Dining Group), Zeus is modernising souvlaki for the contemporary Greek food lover. Armed with traditional recipes and cooking methods passed down through five generations, Zeus are set to serve up Mirool Creek lamb cooked ‘kontosouvli' — a traditional skewer-grilled Cypriot method resulting geared for a little tenderness.
"The inspiration for Zeus was to give Sydneysiders an innovative food experience that incorporates the founders’ passion for Hellenic food, culture and tradition," say the Zeus team, who unveiled plans to expand to Brisbane last year. "Zeus pays homage to the 'God of hospitality' and the Greek custom of filoxenia or 'showing hospitality to all'. Renowned in Greek culture filoxenia translates to everyone being welcome in a Hellenic house where there is always food and wine to be shared whether it’s with old friends or new."
Savoury street-style splendour at Zeus comes dine-in, takeaway or delivered to your doorstep. The eponymous house specialty, The Zeus, is set to be a Greek street food staple worth crossing the city for — slow-cooked lamb with Aegean slaw, smoked eggplant, onion and parsley in fresh pita. There's the Uncle 'Tzimmy' Classic, with chargrilled lamb, pork or chicken with tomato, tzatziki, onion, paprika in pita (with the all-important chips) and ancient grain salads and mezze dishes for vegetarians (think marinated olives, spanakopita and the salty, salty monarch of Greek food — halloumi). Then for dessert, smoosh your face into Zeus' fig and cinnamon rizogalo. Going hungry isn't an option at Zeus.
"When a Greek family hosts you, you’re treated like a guest of honour whether they’ve known you your whole life or you’ve just met that day," says the Zeus team. "Greeks welcome everyone with open arms and make sure that you don’t go hungry while you’re a guest of theirs. It’s this feeling of being welcomed in to the extended family that is brought to life when people drop into Zeus."
Find Zeus Street Greek at 13-14 Little Stanley Street, South Brisbane. Open daily 11.30am-9.30pm, (07) 3846 0200, zsg.com.au.