The thought of a Greek breakfast usually conjures up images of coffee and cigarettes, maybe washed down with a frigania or a tiropita or koulouri on the run.
But Melbourne’s Demitri (Jim) Karabagias has taken the concept to another level, winning accolades from the city’s cafe set and foodie blogasphere. Earlier this year, Demitri’s Feast was named among the Cheap Eats guide’s top 10 breakfasts and earned a special mention in The Age Good Food Guide.
The former sales rep has certainly hit the right note with his welcoming Brunswick-meets-Gazi cafe in Swan Street. Great coffee and quality fresh and organic produce is complemented by distinctive Hellenic flavours, such as the much-lauded baklava French toast made with tsoureki, semolina pancakes or delicious mushrooms with manouri cheese on sourdough.
But its charm is as much about the place’s casual, friendly atmosphere and urban edginess, with Jim’s personal collection of Greek kitsch adding a refreshing dash of whimsy.
“I wanted this cafe to be more a reflection of me and my personality rather than the same old, same old,” says Karabagias, whose energy and style infuses the place.
“That’s why we don’t do muffins, we don’t do eggs Benedict or eggs Atlantic. I put my little Greek twist on the menu and make it a bit quirky.”
Karabagias, 42, returned to his old stomping ground in Richmond last July via a diverse career that included running city cafes and a disappointing stint importing high-end Greek produce.
Growing up in Richmond, his parents ran a fish’n’chip shop in Swan Street until the late 80s and his late uncle Yianni owned a fruit shop in the late 70s.
“I always loved the street and wanted to come back and do something proper here.” Richmond was also where his passion for food and hospitality began.
“Barba Yianni used to do loukoumades in his house and the whole neighbourhood used to come on a Sunday about when he would have a big pot of loukoumades going. I used to love watching him.”
After university Karabagias worked as a sales rep with Yellow Pages, but left to enter the hospitality industry. He started at the bottom washing dishes in a Northcote cafe before bluffing his way into a job on the floor. “I wanted to work my way up to really see how cafes are run,” he says.
In 2000, he became the Melbourne sales rep for Illy coffee before opening his first espresso bar in Elizabeth Street.
After selling his second successful city venture, Ludo, he took a punt importing high end Greek products such as single estate organic olive oil from Crete, giant beans from Kastoria, avgotaraho from Messolongi and black sea salt from Cyprus.
“The market for high end Greek food wasn’t as strong as I had hoped. I had great support from the major restaurants like the Press Club and Movida … but the wholesale side wasn’t strong enough so I got back into the cafe caper.”
Karabagias designed the fit-out for the 35-seater cafe, using recycled timber for the bar, a marble benchtop and creating a Mediterranean-style garden courtyard, adding original touches like an old menu board from his grandfather’s village cafe and stools made from olive tins.
“I’d seen people in delis in Kalamata sitting on olive oil tins in between serving customers and my mind went to the cafes in Brunswick putting milk crates out and I thought it would be cool to make them into seats.”
He set out using quality produce and loves food with a story, from freshly laid Green eggs from the Grampians, artisan bread from Chirico and olive oil from his parent’s village of Karteroli. His mum picks the horta used in the wild spanakopita and makes the melomakarona and kourambiedes that take pride of place on the counter, while his dad picks up the weekly supply of traditional loukanika used in the omelette because the guy who makes them won’t deliver.
Karabagias recalls the pace was at first alarmingly slower than the city cafes he was used to but three months in, a breakfast visit by a food critic, who wrote a glowing review in the Sunday Age, put him on the foodie map. Since then, it’s been a challenge getting a table on weekends, but weekdays it’s a local favourite.
“It’s been a big year. It’s only now that I feel the place has found its feet and is starting to get the character and feel that I wanted.”