When chef Dany Karam called his mum in Lebanon to tell her he was opening a Middle Eastern eatery inspired by her cooking, she gave him her blessing and a warning.
“She told me ‘don’t stuff it up’, but she said it in a nice way,” he tells Broadsheet. “She meant, if I want to use her name, I better make sure I do a good job.”
Karam’s Bar Tikram has been a long time coming. Two years ago, while his mum was visiting Sydney, the pair collaborated on an event at Black Bar & Grill, where Karam is also executive chef. It was hugely popular and planted the seed for the French-trained chef to open a venue that celebrated his heritage. The venue opened in March, but closed shortly after as the city went into lockdown. After six months, it finally reopened in October.
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SIGN UPBar Tikram has taken over the former Pizzaperta space, and Karam uses the woodfired oven that once pumped out pizzas as a substitute for a Lebanese barbeque. It’s a workhorse, cooking everything from the flatbread that accompanies each dish, to spatchcock with garlicky toum dip, to the nine-hour braised lamb shoulder. The only dish that requires a stove is the hummus. Because there’s there’s no cooktop at the bar, they outsource boiling the chickpeas to Black.
The menu is short – just 15 dishes – but each element has been laboriously perfected. For example, it took six months of testing to get the balance of lemon and garlic just right in the hummus, and Karam searched for two months to find a supplier of fresh vine leaves for the warak enab (stuffed vine leaves). “Just in case my mum visits, I don’t want her to find out I’m using pickled leaves instead of fresh,” he says.
Bar manager Behzad Nvaziri (Sokyo Lounge) also emphasises the use of fresh ingredients, pressing pomegranates for cocktails and making his own lemonade. Arak, a classic Levantine spirit, lends a surprising aniseed element to the Pineapple and Gin Spritz, and Lebanese coffee forms the base of the Spiced-Rum Espresso Martini.
The kitchen pays homage to generations of Lebanese home cooks, but the fit-out is contemporary with textures of polished cement and wood, and there’s both indoor and outdoor seating. The decor nods to Middle Eastern decorative flourishes, with pretty patterned tiles, miniature olive trees and fresh citrus fruits piled on the high tables. In comparison with the polished modernity of the rest of The Star, Bar Tikram feels casual and comfortable.
“I want people to eat, drink and feel at home here, like family. It’s a cultural thing,” Karam says.
Another cultural thing? Minding your manners when the food arrives. “In Lebanon we say ‘shukran’ which means ‘thank you’, and the person who made the food answers ‘tikram’, which means, ‘you’re welcome’.”
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