Latest news with #JosephRahme
Sydney Morning Herald
02-07-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
A roaring wood-fire oven stars at this Middle Eastern diner on one of our favourite Eat Streets
Previous SlideNext Slide Lebanese$$$$ Two years after the closure of Isme in Fitzroy in 2022, chef Joseph Rahme reignited the contemporary Middle Eastern diner within a sleek corner site in Thornbury, just next door to his focaccia bar Juju's Deli (also in South Melbourne). HSP bites are Rahme's sophisticated take on the late-night kebab shop favourite. Crisp potato sandwiched with lamb and onion, plus carefully piped layers of chilli and garlic sauces, bring the typical HSP flavours to the fore, while mint cuts through the richness. The stack is finished off with a flurry of freshly grated cheese. Crowd favourites from the Fitzroy eatery have also made their way over to Thornbury, like cheese-filled filo cigars, and bite-sized dumplings filled with spicy sujuk sausage and lathered in Turkish chilli butter and labne.
The Age
02-07-2025
- Business
- The Age
A roaring wood-fire oven stars at this Middle Eastern diner on one of our favourite Eat Streets
Previous SlideNext Slide Lebanese$$$$ Two years after the closure of Isme in Fitzroy in 2022, chef Joseph Rahme reignited the contemporary Middle Eastern diner within a sleek corner site in Thornbury, just next door to his focaccia bar Juju's Deli (also in South Melbourne). HSP bites are Rahme's sophisticated take on the late-night kebab shop favourite. Crisp potato sandwiched with lamb and onion, plus carefully piped layers of chilli and garlic sauces, bring the typical HSP flavours to the fore, while mint cuts through the richness. The stack is finished off with a flurry of freshly grated cheese. Crowd favourites from the Fitzroy eatery have also made their way over to Thornbury, like cheese-filled filo cigars, and bite-sized dumplings filled with spicy sujuk sausage and lathered in Turkish chilli butter and labne.
The Age
29-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Flame-licked flatbread and HSP bites: Your cheat sheet to a revived Lebanese diner
'In Middle Eastern culture, hospitality is a way of life – the door is always open, the coffee is always brewing, and guests are welcomed like family.' For Joseph Rahme, running restaurants is about more than just feeding people. 'My passion for food stems from my family and cultural identity,' he says. It's that warmth that he's tried to weave into his contemporary Lebanese diner Isme since it first opened in 2021 in the backstreets of Fitzroy and, now, in its new location in Thornbury. Despite the venue's popularity, a series of challenges relating to the Fitzroy site plus COVID lockdowns led Rahme to shut up shop in 2022. But it wasn't the end of Isme.
Sydney Morning Herald
29-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Flame-licked flatbread and HSP bites: Your cheat sheet to a revived Lebanese diner
'In Middle Eastern culture, hospitality is a way of life – the door is always open, the coffee is always brewing, and guests are welcomed like family.' For Joseph Rahme, running restaurants is about more than just feeding people. 'My passion for food stems from my family and cultural identity,' he says. It's that warmth that he's tried to weave into his contemporary Lebanese diner Isme since it first opened in 2021 in the backstreets of Fitzroy and, now, in its new location in Thornbury. Despite the venue's popularity, a series of challenges relating to the Fitzroy site plus COVID lockdowns led Rahme to shut up shop in 2022. But it wasn't the end of Isme.
