Breakfast in Athens
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Breakfast in Athens
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Greece is not the land of hearty American-style breakfast, Most Greek breakfasts consist of coffee and a cigarette or two |
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In Psiri there are a few cafes scattered around which have some nice pastries and strong coffee. If you are paying 2 and up euros for a single espresso it may as well be good. Some cafes serve Greek coffee the old way in a little flitzani (Greek coffee pot). Psiri is quiet in the morning, mostly people on their way to work but if you walk down Ag Anargiris street from Iroon Square there are several cafes just before you meet Sari street. If I want a little more atmosphere I go to Diorofos on the corner of Aeolou and Evripidou at the central market where you can have excellent coffee and watch the parade of people walking down pedestrianized Aeolou. They also hire beautiful young waitresses who probably don't last very long because they become models and TV stars. If I am on the move I can go get a cheese-pie(teeropita ), or spinach-pie ( spanakopita ) from one of the small shops or bakeries nearby. There's a great one on Voulis Street, two blocks down from Syntagma called Ariston where you can get pies with many different things baked into it from zuchini to artichokes or versa-visa. But these shops are all over Athens now and though Ariston has the most impressive collection of any of them you can usually find something right around the corner from where you are. Or you can just get a tiropita from a stand if you are not choosy and don't require variety. You can also by a couple koulouria for your family. These are the skinny doughnut-like breads they sell on the streets. They are to Greeks kind of like croissants are to the French. Kind of boring but some people love them and you can eat them on the run which most people do. |
 One of our favorite hangouts
in the Plaka at Farmaki #1 in the little
square called Platia Filomouson on the
corner perpendicular to the Byzantino
Restaurant and next to the pizza place has now been taken over by Starbucks, not a totally bad thing if you seek familiarity and great coffee and they always have stuff that will pass for breakfast though they are more like desert. (There are Starbucks scattered around the city. Your best bet is the one on Metropolis street right on the square across from the main cathedral.) You can get breakfast at the Byzantino Restaurant in Platia Filomouson too and
they make pretty good coffee. The Oinas Cafe also on
the square makes terrific coffee and was my headquarters for the
2004 Olympics. I would read all the papers, drink coffee after coffee
and watch some of the events on their big-screen TV before picking
myself up and walking to Syntagma Square to go to an actual event,
usually baseball or basketball. Just down the street is a wonderful
breakfast place on the corner of Geronda
and Daedelou, just a block from the
square. It is called Tristrato
and it is run by a middle aged gentleman
and his daughter, or maybe it's his wife,
or his sister, or just someone who works
there. Or maybe he works for her since her
name is on the card. I don't really know
or care and neither should you. But it is
a lovely traditional galatadiko
which is a milk and pastry shop. Great
yogurt which you can get with fruit, nuts,
honey or all of the above. Lots of
different coffees and pastries and the
whole place is furnished in
antiques. |
| A frequent breakfast stop for us, also
mentioned in my important Coffee
and Cafe Guide, is the
Diodos Cafe
on Adrianou street across from the entrance to the ancient Agora between the Stoa of Attalos and the Temple of Hephaestos. They make good coffee, are in a great location for morning and early afternoon sun and you feel like you are out in the countryside, almost. Also the Terina
on the square at the intersection of Kapni
Karea and Adrianou Street across from the wall of Hadrian's Library. Many of
the cafes will have quiche and stuff like this on the
menu. There must be a couple dozen little
pastry shops within two blocks of Syntagma
Square, all serving espresso and
displaying beautiful cakes and
pittas. FLOU on the corner of Voulis and Apollonos streets has a selection of spanakopitas, tiropitas, crepes, croisants, fresh fruit juices, ice-creams, omelets, milkshakes and sweets and the croisants you can get everywhere. They make good espresso and don't charge an arm and a leg. The Cafe Centrale which is right next to the cathedral on Metropolis street makes excellent coffee and has a large menu. The Grigoris chain of fastfood joints make a decent espresso-capuccino and alsl serve Greek coffee heated in sand, or at least the one on the corner of Ermou and Athinas did. They are cheap too. Their selection of pitas (spanakopita, tiropita etc) make it a good stop for a quick breakfast for not much money. There are a couple coffee shops right in Syntagma square that are great for people watching because they overlook the entrance to the Metro. The best coffee I have had in Athens was at a small cafe called Foibos at #19 Fokionos Negri in Kypseli. Its a small Parisian style cafe that plays jazz and classical music usually and is owned by an Australian woman and her two sons. Its quite a walk if you are staying downtown but Fokionos is worth it I think. Its a tree shaded avenue that has been made completely pedestrian and both sides of the park are lined with cafes and restaurants. Its a 20 minute walk from the Archaelogical Museum. Turn right on Agia Melitiou and left on Drossopoulou and you can't miss it. The Fiobos is on the left.
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An
Athenian may eat a piece of hard
crusty bread (paxamadia) to fill the
gaping hole in their stomach though this has
little do do with nutrition. But we
American travelers know better. After all
it is no secret that breakfast is the most
important meal of the day and if you just
have a couple cups of coffee and a piece
of bread you may find yourself on top of
the Acropolis, staring at the magestic
beauty of the Parthenon and thinking about
nothing except food.
If you are staying at a fancy hotel like
the Grande Bretagne or the Electra Palace
you will be quite pleased when you see
their breakfast buffet table, piled high
with croisants, fruit, yogurt, eggs,
bacon, sausage, cheeses, cakes, pastries,
cookies and more, constantly being
refilled. You get what you pay for and
these are high end hotels which take pride
in their ability to make their customers
happy at the breakfast
table. But if you are staying at an inexpensive
hotel then breakfast may be at the
subsistance level with coffee just strong
enough to get you to a real cafe,
paximadia, maybe some yogurt and a boiled
egg. So after gazing at the table at the
piles of pre-packaged butter, honey and
marmalade you may want to go and search
for greener pastures. Like loukamades
(fried dough with honey) at Doris
the famous old shop at 30
Praxitelous.
I sometimes have a coffee at
the 
If you want to be like the working class
Greeks why not go down to the meat market
to one of the restaurants there for a nice
steaming bowl of patsa, made from the
innards of sheep and famous for it's
life-saving properties in the event of a
serious hangover, or I suppose even jet
lag. What could be more invigorating than
a ladle full of intestines and other
animal organs before you begin the climb
up the Acropolis.