See inside new Bury St Edmunds restaurant The Olive Grove, in St John's Street, serving Greek food with 'a little bit of a twist'

A new restaurant in Bury St Edmunds is bringing fresh Greek food 'with a little bit of a twist' to customers.

The Olive Grove at the top of St John's Street opened on Monday, September 26, and is owned by Francesca Behjat, 39, and husband George Kontakos, who are both of Greek heritage and met while studying at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

The is the couple's second Olive Grove restaurant after their award-winning branch in Cambridge, which opened there in 2013.

Their first hospitality venture together was a bar/restaurant on Elafonisos - where George's family are from - and the family still run a hotel there.

Francesca, a mother of three, said the reception they had received in Bury had been 'great'.

She said: "We have had our eyes set on Bury for about three years. We have always wanted to open another Olive Grove, but we felt if we are going to start a franchise we might as well start it somewhere close by; somewhere we could nip to very easily and quickly from Cambridge.

"We have always liked Bury. We always came here for the market and whenever friends would visit from abroad we would always bring them here to the cathedral and just to show them around."

She added: "I have had lots of customers ask for Bury and for Newmarket so we knew that it would be one of those places, but when we came to Bury we just thought 'this is definitely us, there is definitely a market here for an Olive Grove'."

The restaurant's name is a nod to the olive groves the family owns on the island of Elafonisos, which is a small Greek island between the Peloponnese and Kythira.

The reddy colour of the fertile soil of this region is used in the décor inside the restaurant, which has a modern feel, but also links to tradition - very much like the food.

"We serve Greek food with a little bit of a twist," said Francesca.

The menu features Greek street food classics like souvlaki wraps - which are 'great' for lunch - and peinirli pizza, made with sourdough bases, and also more fine-dining dishes.

Starters include octopus carpaccio, with pickled fennel, rocket salad and blood orange vinaigrette, and calamari tiganito, which is fried calamari served with mint and garlic mayo.

The restaurant, which has an open kitchen and disabled access, can do around 70 covers.

"Our ethos is fresh, simple food - that's all," said Francesca. "A lot of people ask us 'it's so tasty, what do you do? Do you add different herbs?'. No, we just cook from fresh.

"And that's one of the biggest problems that we found as students here in England is that we couldn't find any fresh food in Cambridge. There were no restaurants serving fresh food. And it's a problem we have across the UK."

Instead of serving calamari from frozen, The Olive Grove uses fresh calamari, both in its Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds branches.

"That's really important," said Francesca. "Our profit margins are obviously smaller, but we want to serve quality food."

She added: "We import all our products from Greece...all of our alcohol on the bar is Greek produce only. A lot of the items that are on our menu eating-wise can also be bought in our deli."

She said customers could communicate with them about any Greek products they would like to see.

The Olive Grove, which is also an off-licence, will be doing hampers for Christmas, with a display table there next week. They are also taking Christmas bookings.

One aspect of The Olive Grove that Francesca said is a bit of a niche is its fresh cocktails, using fresh ingredients, which will be available there soon.

The current opening hours are 12pm to 10pm, but they hope to extend this from 9am to later hours in the evening, to be available as a cocktail bar when the kitchen closes.

Speaking of the couple's ambition for a franchise, Francesca said they don't want it to feel like a chain.

"We want you to feel like you are in a family environment when you come; that our staff are friendly and they are not just reading from a script...when you dine in Greece it's a whole experience," she said.

They also cater a lot for people's dietary requirements and can 'tweak the menu to how you want it'. The restaurant just needs to know in advance if the customer has a garlic allergy.

Francesca said they were looking for staff across a range of roles. Email bury@the-olivegrove.co.uk or call 01284 663085.

The Olive Grove also does take-away, which are currently available for collection, but a delivery service will be launching soon, including link-ups with Deliveroo and Just Eat.

For more information go to the website or Facebook page. There is also an app.

The Olive Grove offers blue light discount.