While having a wonderful meal on holiday, have you ever wished that you could take some of the food home with you? Not a ‘doggie bag’ of leftovers, but the real thing: a fabulous cheese, the dried mushrooms that went into your risotto, or maybe even a bag of homemade noodles? Thera are several places in Athens where you can do just that.
Courtesy: Kostarelos
Kostarelos
This is our go-to for unbelievable sandwiches, salads, and soups. How to choose between the mushroom, spinach, bacon and feta sandwich with truffle mayonnaise? The salad of quinoa, pear, avocado and smoked eggplant vinaigrette? Or a dreamy Greek-inspired fondue? Not to mention the cheese platters.
Kostarelos has been making wonderful dairy products since 1937. Their 14 different cheeses range from two types of graviera to four types of feta, including one that’s aged in brine for 24 months. Less traditional cheeses include sahini (for frying or grilling), maestyri (seasoned with savoury or peppercorns) and krasotyri (aged in red wine). There’s also a great variety of charcuterie and smoked fish from the Ionian, Crete, Central Greece and Mani. Kostarelos is happy to vacuum pack any products that aren’t already sealed. Snare one of the few tables to enjoy your spread, before you have a poke around all the artisanal products from small Greek producers. Maybe you’ll fancy some herbal teas, grape-must cookies, or truffle oil. While browsing, you can help yourself to a little shot of tsipouro (Greek firewater) from the deli counter.
Ergon House
This self-styled ‘foodie hotel’, restaurant and concept store opened with a bang in February 2019. The huge, light- and plant-filled space combines shopping and eating in a stylish blend that borrows heavily from Whole Foods in the USA. A 200-year-old olive tree guards the entrance and a giant mural painted by local street artist Ino covers one wall. There’s a vertical garden made of herbs and salads to be picked and plated.
Ergon is the brainchild of Thomas and George Douzis, brothers from Thessaloniki who formed a network of 150 “independent, honest food artisans” all over Greece, and united them under one brand. Their latest Athens addition, pitched as a modern day agora with “rooms above the inn,” includes a fishmonger, a butcher, and a bakery, along with aisle upon aisle of dry goods, sweets and chocolates. Looking at the deli’s 1,200 offerings, you’ll marvel at the quality and diversity of delicious things being made in Greece today. You can try many of these products right here. Tables are set on one side, where you can feast on wonderfully fresh and reasonably priced salads, smoked herring and sliced potatoes, and pastourma in puff pastry with tomato jam.
- 23 Mitropoleos, Historic Centre, 105 57
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Wheelchair Accessible
- +30 210 010 9090
- Website
Courtesy: Ergon House
Courtesy: Yoleni’s
Yoleni’s
In Yoleni’s six-storey dwelling in Kolonaki there’s enough space for cooking classes, an olive oil-tasting room, a wood-panelled wine cava and a place where kids can play while their parents shop, as well as a café, a more formal restaurant and a steak bistro. Most make a beeline straight for the deli counter, where you can buy sandwiches and snacks to go, as well as cheeses and cold cuts (which can be vacuum-packed for travel). Among the many shelves of artisanal products, you’ll spot some things you would hardly expect to see with a Greek label: bread and butter pickles, chutneys and mustards, plus interesting flavours of pasta (like nettles, saffron, goats’ milk and carrot). There’s also a wide range of tahini, halva, nut butters and fancy olive oils in designer bottles.
“There were plenty of gourmet food shops in Kolonaki, but Greek flavours were missing, so that’s what we focus on,” an assistant manager tells us while we pore over the choices.
Greek flavours are also very present in the décor. It’s worth walking up and down the stairs just to look at the collection of old photos on the walls. And then have a drink or a snack in the café. Lit from above, with walls of brick, it’s as attractive and cosy as the patio in an old house.
Ta Karamanlidika tou Fani
Enter this welcoming dine-in delicatessen and you’re in completely different food territory. Its older sibling, the tiny Arapian a few doors down, has been selling Athenians preserved meats, spicy sausages and other specialities of Anatolia since 1935. The “Karamanlides” were Armenian and Greek refugees from Central Turkey who were relocated to Drama in 1922. They found a niche making pastourma, soutzoukia and kavourmas for their compatriots. These exotic delicacies quickly caught on with the wider public. Before you taste them yourself, you’ll see them dangling from the ceiling: crimson sides of pastourma (beef coated with paprika, fenugreek, garlic and cumin), horseshoe-shaped sausages, and cylinders of beef or pork confit, along with braided garlic and garlands of red peppers. You’ll also find cheeses and cured meats from all over Greece and sweets like halva and baklava. You can taste everything at tiny marble-top tables, served with a smile and prepared in innovative ways that you won’t find in most Greek restaurants. If the Sokratous shop is packed, try your luck at the Ermou branch.
Photo: Amalia Kovaiou
“If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, it probably doesn’t exist.”
To Pantopolio tis Mesogias Diatrofis
In Greek, pantopolio literally means “a shop that sells everything.” If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, it probably doesn’t exist. Opened in 2005, this was one of the first places in Athens to focus on quality Greek products made by small enterprises all over the country. Today it contains over 2,000 products, but it doesn’t feel crowded. Inside, you’ll find rusks, breadsticks, and biscuits, cured fish, meats and cheeses. There’s a marble counter and some stools where you can sit and taste them. There are whole shelves dedicated to flavoured noodles, honey, salt, teas, herbs, and pulses, intriguing mixes of wild mushrooms, sauces, jams, and regional sweets. One room is lined with olive oil and vinegar bottles, with another tasting counter. Beyond that is the cava, where you can sample Greek wines.
While you’re at the check out, why not try an acorn cookie? They were dreamed up by an American woman who settled on the Cycladic island of Kea, where there are oaks rather than olive groves. As well as tasting great, the cookies provide income for local farmers.
