Bountiful salad bowls might have included braised beans with roasted carrots,or broccoli,zucchini,avocado and zhoug piled high. Fans crossed town for the Aleppo toastie,a Turkish bread press of spiced eggplant,sumac and sheep’s milk cheese.

“Everyone says,‘Babajan is so great,you are so busy,you must be making so much money’,but we weren’t.”

Babajan owner-chef Kirsty Chiaplias

Babajan went through various iterations – expanding into dinner service for a time,retreating to daytime trade and then,during the pandemic,ditching dining-in altogether,even when Melbourne reopened.

Chiaplias spoke about the challenges of running her business at apanel discussion at Worksmith hospitality hub in 2022. “What you want to do,you can’t always do in business,” she said. “We were losing money. Everyone says,‘Babajan is so great,you are so busy,you must be making so much money’,but we weren’t. The costs were outweighing the revenue.”

Chiapliasopened a city venue in March but trade was hampered by slow CBD trade. Babajan mark two was at the Spring Street end of Little Collins Street,just a block away from Pope Joan,whichclosed with sizeable debts in August.

“The city is proving to be such a tremendous challenge,” said co-owner David Mackintosh at the time. “Daytime cafe business feels permanently different in the city now.”

The last time Melburnians were able to sit down in a hospitality setting to eat Chiaplias’s generous and delicious food was in March 2022 at the World’s Longest Brunch,a signature event at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Chiaplias was alongside chefs Shane Delia and Joseph Abboud to present the Middle Eastern morning banquet. She served a yoghurt and olive oil cake with apples,cashew cream and sesame brittle.

“Kirsty knows how to cook food that really satisfies,” says Abboud,who ismoving Rumi to East Brunswick Village in November. “I love her sophistication as a chef. I can’t wait to see what she does next.”