City dwellers prone to a purchase or two at a continental deli rejoice. One of the city’s best has opened a new outlet, as Julie-anne Sprague reports.
LEE Jovanoski is well known around Fremantle, or more specifically Beaconsfield, as the operator of one of the city’s best continental delicatessens. Romanos Continental Foods carries more than 4,000 product lines and attracts visitors from all over Perth.
Gourmet food lovers located closer to the CBD who regularly make the trip to Beaconsfield now have even more reason to lick their lips. Lee has teamed up with his brother Sas Jovanoski and Sas’s wife Anna in a new continental food operation, Romanos of Subiaco.
Located in the newly renovated Farmer Jacks site at Crossways Shopping Centre, the gourmet delicatessen and produce shop stocks the very best in cold meats and European produce.
Sas says the location is well suited to the new business.
“I think it’s great. Baker’s Delight is just outside and the supermarket is next door,” he says.
“We stock what’s known as the world’s best salt. We sold out last week and I’ve just got a new box in.
“We sell fresh mozzarella that most people have difficulty getting.
“We’ve got our roast chickens here. The taste is superb. There is no stuffing and they are marinated every day. We put them on several times a day.”
The shop is impressive, sporting a tailor-made jarrah sign and what Sas says is WA’s longest cabinet fridge.
“The cabinet is 12 metres in length. I believe it’s the longest in WA.”
Sas would not divulge the total price for the fit-out but says the family has spent well over $250,000.
Sas’s brother Lee has operated the Beaconsfield shop for 37 years and it has become an institution.
“We have people coming from Subiaco, Margaret River, Rockingham, Shark Bay and all over. They go to the shop in Beaconsfield because they can’t buy that stuff anywhere else,” Sas says.
Anywhere else except for the Subi store, of course.
And Sas says that if your favourite gourmet item isn’t on the shelf, they can most likely get it in.
“A lot of people request a certain type of thing and 90 per cent of the time we can get it in,” he says.
The store operates in classic European style, where everything is cut to order. And of course there’s the knowledge that comes from the employees who are specialists in gourmet food and produce.
Romanos of Subiaco is open seven days a week and until 9pm every night.
