A well-known Adelaide food team is opening a new city restaurant with a Mediterranean twist.

Callum Hann and Themis Chryssidis are jumping on the Mediterranean bandwagon and opening Olive on Pirie Street in late October.

The duo, who own the Sprout Food Group which includes Eleven and cooking school Sprout, have decided to take a new approach to Mediterranean cuisine right in the heart of the CBD.

“When I say a Mediterranean restaurant, we do mean the full stretch of the Mediterranean,” Callum says.

“[Mediterranean] is used a lot to describe Greek and Italian restaurants, but we want to have a little bit of that side, but right through to Turkey and Lebanon and Morocco and that side of the Mediterranean as well.”

“We want to go from Marrakech to the Middle East. It’s the most incredible melting pot of cuisine, because of the different cultures and the different climates,” Themis elaborates.

Looking very happy about their new restaurant

The idea came from Callum and Themis wanting to open a restaurant that mirrored the food they enjoy eating.

“Let’s do a restaurant with the kind of food that we actually cook for our own friends and family. That’s where the idea was born,” Callum says.

“I think the reason people love it so much is not only is it full of flavour, but it’s actually quite fresh and healthy and light.

“Especially coming into the warmer weather, that’s exactly what we feel like eating, and we figured that’s what the punter is going to hopefully enjoy as well.”

Themis says the duo wants to put “love and flavour on the plate” but keeps his cards close to his chest about the specific items on the Olive menu.

“There will be a strong vegetable focus, [and] there’ll be a strong spice focus as well,” Themis continues.

“In terms of the specific dishes, it’s still probably in [the] finalisation phase.”

Keeping in touch with Med tropes, the menu will be designed for sharing.

“The structure of the menu is going to be snacks, smaller and larger… the idea is you can come at any time after 11 o’clock, and have a glass of wine and a couple of snacks or you can sit and have a long lunch or a long dinner,” Themis says.

“That’s what people want to eat… gone are the days when people want to sit down at a fine dining restaurant to have their own three-course meal.

“You don’t go out just to eat, you go out to have a good experience, and the food and the people you’re with, and the beverages, and the atmosphere, all those things combined. So sharing is the way to go.”

This theme of sharing has trickled down through to the design of the restaurant, with large tables built for big groups.

“You’ve naturally got spaces for if we go out for a ‘bromantic’ date, but then we’ve got some larger tables as well,” Callum says.

“We’ve got a beautiful feature Terrazzo table… and it’s perfect for a larger group, if you are catching up with some mates, celebrating something, to throw a bunch of bottles of wine in the middle of the table and some lovely food and have that experience.”

Themis and Callum at the Eleven bar in December 2020. This picture: Johnny von Einem.

Despite the duo being “both passionate about olives”, the reason for the restaurant’s name is the one thing that remains a constant in the entire Med which is, in Themis’ opinion, olives.

“For us, it’s symbolic,” Themis says.

“We love olive oil, the health properties of olive oil, the flavour benefits of olive oil, but at the same time, it’s central to every one of those cuisines in the Mediterranean.

“It just is the one word that ties it all together.”

This next offering from the Sprout Food Group has come from a lengthy partnership that began in 2011 when the two became partners and grew to form their business.

While Callum very humbly explains how he had “just come off an old TV thing”, which was MasterChef, he fell in love with the idea of educating people, and the pair began their business by creating cooking classes.

“I love that idea of educating and getting people excited about food and falling in love with food for the same reasons I’ve loved it,” Callum says.

“Themis is a dietician and was sick of telling people how to eat better, and wanted to show people in a more hands on way.

“We first started running with classes, and here we are 12 years later, and it’s just grown and evolved from there.”

Olive is located at 4/86 Pirie Street and is slated to open in late October.

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