When James Ward launched Francis, on St Francis Yard in Wan Chai, he and his partners simply adopted part of the street name on which the restaurant was located. Their second restaurant, in Central, was called Francis West.

With their new restaurant Carmela, in Sheung Wan, they had to do a little more work in creative branding and strategy.

“We wanted a one-word name that would align nicely with Francis,” Ward says of the new southern Mediterranean eatery. “It is an old Italian and Spanish name. It is also a nice connection with Asher.”

That would be chef Asher Goldstein, a Tel Aviv native and Ward’s partner who, along with sommelier Simone Sammuri, forms the trio behind Carmela.

“In Hebrew, carmela also means garden,” Ward says. “And on Israel’s coastline, on the Mediterranean Sea, you have Mount Carmel, so it’s a nod to that. I think it sounds quite charming and warm.”

The dishes at Carmela are mostly from Southern Europe and the Southern Mediterranean.

Ward needed to give his new venture some thought because the area where Carmela is located is quite different from that of his previous restaurants.

Foot traffic around the restaurant’s ground floor space at the Nan Fung Tower office building on Des Voeux Road tends to be more rushed and hectic than the hip urbane residential lanes of the Star Street precinct – where Francis is located – or SoHo, home of Francis West.

“We built this concept more around the area,” Ward says. “It obviously has a different clientele to SoHo, perhaps a little bit more local. We felt we needed to do something for all-day dining. Lunch is already very busy. We think in the long run, breakfast has great potential.

“There is a gap because there’s not a lot of non-Chinese restaurants within a 200-metre radius. We think there’s a captive commercial audience here. For sure, weekend traffic will be a big challenge, but because it is a little bit more local, we’ve made the menu a touch more friendly.

“For that reason, we’ve veered a bit away from focusing on eastern Mediterranean and incorporated more of the southern Mediterranean. So there’s more influence from the South of France and Italy.”

This means more recognisable dishes like pasta and seafood, and fewer esoteric ones such as kafta and freekeh.

The word “meze” is also nowhere to be found on the menu. Instead, the top of the page reads “spreads & small”, with dishes including whipped mackerel “tarama” with trout roe and celery, and baked ricotta with fermented chilli, honey and fresh oregano.

“The problem with the North African theme at Francis West, for some people, is there’s a bit of intimidation. It’s something that they haven’t tried before, and they have no reference. But we’ve always been confident that once we get you through the door, you’ll be converted,” Ward says.

“With Carmela, everyone knows a good bowl of linguine. It’s very much a culinary melting pot with a lot of Italian and southern European influence. What we like is that the cuisine itself is relatively light and healthy.

“Asher is very versatile and a very forward-thinking chef. He is always looking at what others are doing around the world and that’s the direction the market is moving these days, so we have to play to our strengths.”

To give it some unique touches and elements, Goldstein is introducing new signatures like a leaf-shaped sourdough French flat bread called fougasse with garlic and sage. Another is pasta dumplings stuffed with potato, stracchino cheese and rosemary called culurgiones.

“It’s almost like second nature for me to cook this food, with lots of olive oil, citrus, fresh herbs and fresh vegetables,” Goldstein says. “Food that tastes good and looks good will be universally accepted.”

Of his restaurant partner Ward, he adds, “I think we have a very similar mindset in hospitality and guest experience. Even though we are very different people, both of us are guest-oriented and driven by passion. That’s the common ground for us.”

Ward came to Hong Kong in 2011 to work for the Aqua Group before joining the Le Comptoir restaurant group. Goldstein and Sammuri both worked at Italian restaurant 121 BC before they all collaborated in 2018 to open Francis. Its immediate success announced their arrival as serious restaurateurs.

However, their only expansion forays since have been Francis West and the smokehouse Mr Brown, which closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Needless to say, Carmela is a cautious and risky new bet.

“We self-fund the restaurants,” Ward says. “Generally speaking, I find the locations, then we put our heads together and create the concept. We don’t aspire to have 20 restaurants overnight. Our intentions are to be slow and steady. We very much want to build concepts that can stand the test of time. Francis is now eight years old. We just renewed the lease and we’d like it to be there for another eight years.”

Ward is committed to Hong Kong in the long term, despite the dining landscape changing. “I’ve been here 14 years now. Certainly on the streets on weekends, it’s not what it was 10 years ago,” he says. “Our concepts are, to an extent, niche, and you can’t find equivalents in Shenzhen.”

However, he says that one of the difficulties of running restaurants in Hong Kong is that he cannot lock in longer leases. “I guess that’s why a lot of operators really try to get their return on investment in the shortest possible time,” he says.

Ward and company have resisted the temptation to go upscale and charge more. Carmela is not fancy. The decor is not exactly minimalist either, but the earth-tone colours and ceramic tiles are simple, basic, yet comfortable, which is what southern Mediterranean hospitality conjures.

“We’re just trying to offer good plates at good prices,” Ward says. “There’s no secret ingredient, really.”