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With industry predictions pointing at a major restaurant contraction over the next six months, Sydney restaurateurs don’t appear to have received the memo. There’s a smorgasbord of new venues on the way, and Peter Conistis is set to join the party.
The Greek-Australian chef behind Alpha, Omega and – for those with longer memories – Cosmos, is opening a new restaurant, on the water’s edge at The Rocks.
Good Food can reveal Ploos, the Greek word for sails, is headed into Campbell’s Stores, the redeveloped dining strip beside Quay restaurant.
The chef behind one of Sydney’s great dishes, scallop and taramasalata moussaka, will drill down on southern Mediterranean food at Ploos. “It’ll be my interpretation of Crete and Cypriot food,” Conistis says.
The design includes an oversized eat-at bar where you can snack on harbour views and Conistis’ food.
No stranger to Campbell’s Stores, the chef has been running Alpha Pop there while building work is undertaken at Alpha’s city home.
“Alpha should be back in there [Castlereagh Street] by February, Ploos will open in March,” he says.
While Alpha is owned by the Hellenic Club, at Ploos Conistis will be backed by Venues Collection.
The hospitality group has a posse of Sydney venues: in recent weeks it opened Harbourfront Seafood Restaurant, also at Campbell’s Stores.
The seafood restaurant has promising pedigree in its kitchen. Head chef Craig Knudsen is a former executive chef at luxury resort Qualia, has worked at The Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld in Victoria and spent his early career at Tetsuya’s.
Knudsen recommends the salmon crudo and the fish soup. “The seafood platters are also really good,” he says.
