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Middle Eastern pita palace Shaffa to open in Surry Hills

Scott Bolles
Scott Bolles

The restaurant's black nondescript entrance (centre) is wedged between a large building and church.
The restaurant's black nondescript entrance (centre) is wedged between a large building and church.Supplied

Prime Surry Hills site? Tick. On-trend Sydney restaurant cuisine? Tick. Quirky name? Tick, tick.

"Shaffa means hottie," says Erez Nahum, an Israeli chef who grew up in and around the food markets of Tel Aviv and opened three venues in his hometown before his 30th birthday.

Late next month he'll open his appropriately named restaurant on Albion Street, on the strip Chur Burger first put on the food map.

Israeli chef Erez Nahum.
Israeli chef Erez Nahum. Supplied
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Shaffa will slide into the spruced-up mid-1800s site of the Appletree Hotel, which includes a redeveloped outdoor space between it and the neighbouring church.

Nahum, who is quick to point out the convict bricks, is a history lover. He talks about pita bread pockets with the same passion he does his restaurant's home. "Pita is a holy thing. It needs to be fluffy, not too thick but not too thin, it can't tear. Pita has a lot of responsibility."

Daytime service at Shaffa will be fast and furious, with lots of food in pita, and the venue moving up a notch at night where the bar and courtyard will come into play.

"In Tel Aviv there are lots of places where the chefs go to the markets and then have places nearby," he says.

"Israel is a young country where people came ... from all over. My father's family is from Iraq and my mother's Romania, so it has all those different food influences. They all come together and create beautiful new things."

Shaffa opens in late March at 80 Albion Street, Surry Hills.

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Scott BollesScott Bolles writes the weekly Short Black column in Good Food.

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