Forget the Parthenon – Why alternative Athens is a must
Away from the historical monuments, Ash Hiden gets to grips with Athens’ vibrant food and drink scene
You will want to see the Parthenon. I get it. The imposing temple on the hill of the Acropolis serves as an ancient advertisement for Athens, stamping your mental passport like a marble version of the Hollywood Sign. But once that’s out of the way, it’s time to put the history textbook down, step outside the classroom, and explore what the city has to offer in the present day.
To immerse yourself in Athens in the roaring 2020s, Gatsby is where to stay. Serving guests since late 2021, the ex-prison is now a complex of 33 art deco inspired rooms in the heart of the city, with easy-access to the many hotspots of the Monastiraki neighbourhood. Arriving at this boutique hotel, you’ll find local young professionals exploring the cocktail menu alongside international travellers in town for a brief stint.
I had come to Athens as I’d heard about the burgeoning food scene, and at Gatsby that night, my charming and knowledgeable host for the evening, Konstantinos, walked me through a menu epitomising Athens’ ability to combine the classical with the contemporary. The catch of the day sea bass crudo, bathed in soy, lime and ginger was a flavourful but light way to start alongside creamy Taramas topped rye bars. Chicken infused with traditional Ladolemono was properly stand-out.
I’d started off very well. Athens has as much to experience in the way of cool bars, restaurants and new hangouts as it does traditional offerings. Looking further afield pays off when you reach the city’s must-visit Line restaurant, a thirty minute walk from Gatsby. Concealed along a sleepy suburban street where old boys tinker under bonnets of cars and adolescent cats play fight in the sun, you’d be forgiven for assuming you were lost.
Drawing closer, the sounds of house music revisions of ‘80s classics fill your ears. Line’s ex-factory setting has been respectfully altered for posterity but nothing more. From the well sitting prominently in the open space in front of the bar to the gantry above the barista’s station, original touches abound. The industrial history is the backdrop for Line’s forward thinking approach to their food and drink.
Vasilis Kyritsis, Line co-owner and co-proprietor of respected Athenian mainstay The Clumsies, talked us through the elements that have helped them become #31 in The World’s 50 Best Bars despite only opening in January 2022. “We love the industry and want our staff to realise a career in hospitality is possible, rather than seeing it as ‘just’ a job,” he says. “All our staff are salaried rather than paid hourly and have health insurance. It’s our hope that this security takes out some of the worries that hospitality staff have and they feel happy here.”
It appears to be doing the trick for their culture. I could barely find a table free during brunch service. At Line, ingredients you’d typically call ‘waste’ are turned into interesting things for the plate. The date puree served with rye bread and powdered aubergine is made from leftovers from the venue’s homemade fruit wine production. Something so unique is the eggs benedict. Pretty standard, you’re saying. Yet this bennie was served encased in a savoury doughnut, with hollandaise piped into it as you would usually see with jam. Being here for brunch, it took all I had to not stay until the evening to see what else the ingenuity of the Line chefs had in store.
Reluctantly dragging myself away, I hit the neighbourhood of Exarchia in the north east that feels like a cousin of Berlin’s Kreuzberg or Neukölln. The contrast between the anarchist street art and the commissioned murals sitting above, high enough out of reach to all but the most dedicated tagger, evidence the uneasy coexistence of the prevailing punk ethos with encroaching gentrification.
Sitting in the shade of trees and graffitied post-war apartment buildings outside Exarchia’s bustling Karagiozis cafe bar on Koletti 33 street, one young resident and soon to be historic tour guide explained with pride how locals do business. “Just around the corner a vacant car park was due for development, but the people wanted something different,” she said.
Some see it as a much-needed improvement to local infrastructure; others lament the project as a desecration of a community’s only purpose-built green space
“One night they broke in and occupied it; planting flowers and vegetables in the freshly broken ground. We like to call it guerilla gardening.” We took a short walk to what is now Navarinou Park to find families of three generations playing with their dogs and enjoying the evening sun in the rebel plot.
This ingrained activist spirit is finding current changes harder to fight. The construction of a new Metro station in Exarchia Square rather than next to the nearby National Archaeological Museum it would serve has divided opinion. Some see it as a much-needed improvement to local infrastructure; others lament the project as a desecration of a community’s only purpose-built green space and just the latest attempt to sterilise the area.
For those looking to learn more about the traditional side of Greek food and drink, the handily titled Alternative Athens hosts an engaging walking food tour to give you a solid grasp of the basics. The Turkish influence dating back to the Ottoman Empire becomes apparent early on, from the sweet baklava of the first stop to the traditional coffee and conspicuously named Greek Delight that accompanied it in the second. Further on you are treated to a clear locals’ favourite souvlaki joint and a traditional taverna before exploring meat, fish, and fruit and veg markets.
The cod paired wonderfully with chargrilled celeriac and an out of this world wild mushroom fricassée
While the former may challenge even the most vociferous carnivore, the latter causes a sigh at
the thought of having to return to the supermarket aisles. Having opened last July, there’s still a lot of buzz around Tsiftis in the centrally-located neighbourhood of Ilisia, also walkable from the hotel. It’s easy to see why.
Blending gastronomy with the sociability of everything-in-the-middle Greek dining, the idea is that a good meal is best shared. Smaller plates are what’s popular and the menu changes weekly, dependent on the best market produce and catches from the docks.
A cured grouper with wild herbs sat in sharp, fermented mountain tea and moustos reminiscent of a soy kombucha. The mild and delicately flakey cod paired wonderfully with chargrilled celeriac and an out of this world wild mushroom fricassée. Accompanying these was the best domestic wine we’d found in Athens, with the danger of intensely acidic and overly bold varieties nowhere to be seen.
Athens is primed, willing, and able to take you forward. As our friend in Exarchia said: “More is said about what the Greeks did in 447 BC than what we’re doing right now. But hey, it pays the bills.”
Visit Athens yourself
Rooms at Gatsby Athens start from £150 for a double standard room; gatsbyathens.com; to book a tour visit alternativeathens.com and for general information go to visitgreece.gr