In Eleftheria Amanatidis’ family, an invitation to eat comes with several generations of experience behind it.
The chef, restaurateur and author grew up in Yarraville watching her yiayias cook. Today, she runs Eleni’s Kitchen + Bar, Jimmy’s Deli and Cakes by Thierry alongside her sister Anatoli, carrying that family history into three businesses with their own personalities.
Their grandmother Eleni opened her Greek restaurant in Yarraville in 1971. Their grandfather Dimitri, known as Jimmy, ran local butcher shop Nea Ellas. Across the extended family, cafés, food stores and pizza shops made hospitality part of daily life.
In 2017, the sisters opened the current Eleni’s Kitchen + Bar on Anderson Street, dedicating it to their grandmother. Traditional Greek cooking remains the focus, drawing on the food Eleftheria grew up eating and the knowledge passed down through her family.
Her training continued with Eleni’s head chef Christos Katopodis, formerly of Jim’s Greek Tavern. She now works across the kitchen, charcoal grill, pass and floor, as well as making cakes and pastries for the family’s businesses. It is a fairly comprehensive interpretation of helping out at the restaurant.
But some of the most interesting things happening at Eleni’s involve getting guests a little closer to the traditions themselves.
Spanakopita masterclasses offer a chance to learn the cooking. Greek High Tea creates another occasion to gather around it. Whole Lamb Nights and Greek Tavern Nights bring people together over food, with the latter adding live music, dancing and plate smashing to the evening.
Each gives the restaurant a role beyond serving dinner. A family recipe can become something a guest learns to make, while music and dancing turn a meal into a shared occasion.
The family connections continue next door at Jimmy’s Deli, which the sisters opened in 2022. The New York style sandwich shop honours their grandfather and his love of good meat. Cakes by Thierry followed in 2023, taking its name from a nickname shared by Eleftheria and her namesake grandmother.
Then, in 2024, a fire forced Eleni’s to close for four months.
During the closure, Eleftheria began writing her debut cookbook, Ela na Fáme!, meaning “Come and Eat”. Dedicated to the women who raised her, it brings together the family recipes that helped shape her cooking. Released in April 2025, it gave that knowledge another way to travel beyond the restaurant.
There is a thread running through the businesses, the classes and the book. The names belong to family members. The recipes come with a history. And the knowledge Eleftheria absorbed by watching her grandmothers is now being shared with people who never had a seat in their kitchens.
At Eleni’s, keeping tradition alive involves putting it to work: cooking it, teaching it and finding another reason to bring people to the table.
Ela na Fáme. Come and eat.
Explore Eleni’s Kitchen + Bar and Cakes by Thierry.