Let’s see a show of hands for the island dreamers, overseas holiday schemers and the vacation make-believers. I see you. Please have zero shame in mentally planning your next escape, even if you’ve just returned from a summer break.

Getting on a plane seems more trouble than it’s worth right now, but there’s a slick way to spend summer in Santorini sans passport.

Pals Isaac Constantine and Zachary Riggs, behind South Yarra bar Two Wrongs, have taken clippers to South Melbourne’s weathered and woolly Golden Fleece Hotel, turning it into a chiselled, white sandstone, Greek metropolis last December.

Inside it’s all convincingly European with white walls, stone-paved floors, cacti and potted olive trees even if the building’s polished, pubby exterior screams ‘where’s my parma and pint?’.

When Covid ramped up in January, skittling hospo staff and scarcing produce nationwide, Golden Fleece pared back its food offering.

This meant executive chef Daniel Callan (former Nick and Nora’s, St Kilda’s The Post) Mediterranean-inspired snacks were on hold, with only drinks served on its drawcard rooftop – a prime photo-snapping space that’s selfie bait for anyone under 25.

When Callan’s menu returns next week, expect to swipe plenty of Turkish bread through fish roe dip adorned with finger lime and snaffle as many sardines on toasted bread as you can.

Pre-made charcuterie platters are perfect to pick over, or fill out your own with Gippsland brie, prosciutto, pastrami and lunch meat of the moment, mortadella.

Salt and Szechuan pepper calamari coils, flash-fried until golden and piled on a rocket and radish salad with garlicky splodges of aioli make easy bites without any real spice kick. The braised lamb shoulder pizza is more substantial, with the cheese, rocket and Sicilian olive ratio off-kilter to the slow-cooked meat. It packs enough flavour though for a return slice, especially with the right amount of chew and char in that pillowy crust.

If you take the pasta route, know the ala scoglio linguine is more summer-friendly and lighter than the others on show. Sweet prawn meat nubs, plump New Zealand mussels and firm calamari heaving with garlic come tangled among oily linguine strands. It’s polished off in seconds. And if carb overload gives you guilt (it shouldn’t), the Greek salad was crisp and refreshing where it counted.

On the drinks front, the potent and fruity Great Bulls of Fire mezcal cocktail goes down a touch too easily on this balmy summer night, but there are plenty of other ways to whet your whistle. There’s six signature and five classic cocktails made at the bar, as well as beers, seltzers and batch-made cocktails on tap to keep you hydrated.

An absence of Greek wines by the glass and bottle is a missed opportunity, mended by adding small-scale wineries such as Yarra Valley’s Soumah and Adelaide Hills’ Unico Zelo to its short list.

Perhaps pick up a bottle on your way out at the Golden Fleece store downstairs, or have them delivered to your door monthly through a subscription service launching soon.

Mediterranean happy snaps may be a little while off for now, but Melbourne’s answer to Santorini works just as well this summer.

Related restaurant review: Di Stasio Pizzeria delivers classico cuisine in an ultra sleek setting