The opening of George Calombaris’s Hellenic Republic restaurant in Williamstown has been delayed.
The MasterChef star had hoped to open in December on the site of the former Hobsons Bay Hotel, which he and his partners in restaurant group Made Establishment bought for $3 million in 2013.
Made Establishment public relations manager Lauren Calleja said the restaurant was set to open next year.
“We had a meeting this week to go through some plans and menu ideas,” she said.
“We hope we’re on our home stretch and will be open in the first half of next year. We had hoped to open before Christmas, but it’s just not do-able with the plans and builders, unfortunately.
“We had some delays with building and obviously we want to try and keep a bit of the building there and pay tribute to the fact that it’s an old pub.
“We’re very excited to be opening there, to be honest. We’ve had the site for a couple of years now and we’ve got a good concept down pat.”
It’s not known how menu items and prices will vary from Hellenic Republic restaurants in Brunswick East and Kew.
On the Kew a la carte menu, a whole baby snapper with brown butter taramosolata and lemon costs $38.
In Brunswick East, whole snapper with dill, fennel and orange salad costs $28.
The Kew a la carte menu has chips for $9, while the closest thing on the Brunswick East menu is tiganites patates, or fried potatoes, for $10.
