Psiri: Nightlife Center of Athens
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Psiri: Nightlife Center of Athens
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History of PsiriPsiri has always had a reputation of being anti-establishment. From the very beginning of the modern Greek State people from the provinces and especially from the island of Naxos, came to the area of Psiri. Many got jobs and became respectable citizens but some stayed and made up the underworld of Athens. They were known as mangas. Hash-smokers, petty criminals and people discontent with society their ranks were constantly replenished by new immigrants. One group called Koutsavakideswere known for their long mustaches, long sharp toed boots with high heels, tight pants, a broad sash which hid their weapons and their jackets worn with one arm out of the sleeve. They terrorized Athens using Psiri as their base for over 50 years. They literally governed the neighborhood and even the police were afraid to set foot in Psiri.
Unfortunately Baoraktaris did not stop there. He also ended the romantic custom of suitors serenading from the streets to their beloved in the windows and balcony above, by sending his police to break the guitars over their heads before arresting them and throwing them in jail for the evening. Psiri was also known as the haven for the revolutionaries during the war of Independence as well as for a very odd sport that kept the lower classes entertained in the days before football. They would have 'stone wars' or what we as kids called 'rock fights'. At a prearranged time men from Psiri would meet the men from Thission, Metaxourgio or Petralona and insult each other until the rocks began flying. There were cheering spectators and those injured became neighborhood heroes. This went on until the end of the 19th century.
"Oh
maid of Athens, ere I part The subject of this poem who became something of a star was Theresa Makris, one of three sisters who lived next door to the boarding house where Byron stayed when he visited Athens in 1809. Though Byron never had a relationship with her (she was only twelve and he preferred the company of young boys) the mere mention of her in the poem inspired a sort of cult and nineteenth century tourists would visit the house and hope to witness the beauty that had inspired the great romantic poet. The house where Byron stayed was on the corner of Agios Theklas and Papanikolis street. Its just up the street where Stavros Melissinos the famous poet-sandal-maker of Athens has his shop. During the 20th century Psiri was an area of tavernas and a place where you would find the rembetica musicians who sang their songs of love, exile, pain, poverty, heroin and hashish, the same songs you will hear in Psiri today. Psiri is my home when I am in Athens. |
A Visit to Psiri
Walking through
Psiri in the daytime is deceiving.
The streets are filled with
working class people and the
former leather craftsman district
still contains a variety of shops and
businesses that might be described
as practical or business oriented,
from type-setters, to fixtures,
and material goods for making
clothing. The only clues that the
area is a hotbed of nightlife are
the cafes and restaurants
storefronts that look like they
have been closed for
years and the new shops and boutiques.
If you were wandering through the neighborhood you
might stop and wonder what a state-of-the-art climate-controlled
shop selling Cuban Cigars is doing in an area of
workshops and small factories?
Further into Psiri on tiny Evi Street is the Mezedopoulion Evi or what we call "The Elvis Costello Place". If you go you may understand why. It is very small and there are very few chairs and for that reason I am not going to give directions so that only the more adventerous will find it. It is right next door to an amazing home-made candle shop. Evi is the only place in Athens that I have found that carries Baba Tzim ouzo from Serres, one of my favorites. This is where I am most nights in Athens, starting off with an ouzo or two, some fried shrimp, or soupia (cuttlefish), and maybe a few more dishes before sending my wife home to bed and continuing my night at Platia Iroon listening to Nikos and the band.
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Starting the week before Easter Sunday Psiri plays host to the Naxos, Lamb and Cheese market. The streets are filled with Naxiotes who have come to Athens to sell the Easter lambs everyone roasts and the delicious Naxos cheese which the island is famous for as well as home made wine, all from the villages in the interior of the island. Read all about the Naxos Lamb and Cheese Market and see also the famous Naxos shop of Kostas:Geniko Emborio Eklekton Proionton Naxos
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For
those who find Plaka too touristy at
night Psiri is a great alternative.
The nearby
Attalos
Hotel
on
Athinas street is clean, very
professionally run and very
inexpensive and by staying here you
have access to Psiri as well as nearby
Monastiraki, the Plaka and all the
archeological sites.
For more on Psiri see my Psiri Photo Journey See also Nightlife and Club listings and Alexia Amvrazi's Nightlife Guide to Psiri, Restaurants, The Poet-Sandalmaker of Psiri, Rembetika Music, Athens Nightlife |
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In 1893 Prime
Minister Harilaos Trikoupis founded a
new combination army-police to stamp
out the Koutsavakides under the control of
the tough Inspector Dimitrios
Baoraktaris. His method was simple. He
humiliated the Koutsavakides by
arresting them and cutting off the
toes of their pointed boots as
well as the unused sleeve of their
coats, shaved their mustaches and force
them to break their guns, before
sending them home embarrassed. It
worked and the Koutsavakides faded
away and Psiri became safe for
everyone.
Psiri was also the home of the 'Maid
of Athens' of Lord Byron fame who has
been immortalized in his poem:
Several years ago a wealthy
landlord (who happened to be a
government minister) was able to
pass a law that made Psiri, a
working class neighborhood that
was full of leather workshops and
small factories, into an area
designated for nightlife. This of
course would make real estate more
valuable. The leather workers
who had been there for generations
were not too pleased, but the
result was a neighborhood that was
suddenly alive, not just during
the day but all night too. Whether this
is something positive or something that will
one day lead to more misery (alcoholism, obesity,
decadance and high rents) we will have to see but
for now one thing is certain. Psiri is a fun place
to visit and I would not mind living here either.
If you did not look close
enough to see the signs that advertise
them as restaurants you
might think they are abandoned
or not even notice them. In fact with
the exception of the cafe Rebecca, a
traditional mezedes cafeneon with a
few tables outside,
the only food you will find in Psiri
in the daytime during the week is at the working class Taverna Psiri, a souvlaki from the shop next door or at Platia
Iroon, a spanakopita in the pastry shop
next door, a koulorakia (like a doughnut
but not sweet) from the factory
that supplies most of the downtown
vendors, or a candy bar at the kiosk in
Iroon square.But things are changing and by the time you read this there may be a dozen more places for lunch or to while away the afternoon with food, ouzo and wine.
Starting at around 6pm Psiri
undergoes the transformation from
working-class-light-industrial, to
a mecca of cafes, bars,
restaurants and ouzeries in a
setting that reminds me of a
scaled down version of New York's
Soho district with the East Village
tossed in. The streets are
filled with tables and chairs and
what were parking lots during the
day become dramatically lighted
outdoor dining areas for restaurants that
look they have been built into a
bombed out city. Each restaurant
has its own style, from
traditional Greek taverna or
ouzerie-mezedopouleon to 60's
style cafes that may remind you of
a luncheonette in an old movie.
Many are decorated with historic
photos of Athens and some with
relics of our modern
society.
One of my favorite
ouzeries is called Platia
Iroon on Platia Iroon. They have a
very large selection of mezedes (ouzo
snacks) and main dishes, many
traditional and some explorations on
traditional themes. The prices are
very reasonable, in fact they are
cheaper then what you will find in the
Plaka. The service is efficient which
is surprising because the tables fill
half the Platia. The waiters use small
hand-held computers which send your
order to the kitchen as soon as you
place it. If you have children there
is an entire platia to play in and
plenty of kids from other
tables. In the winter time this is a
cozy place to be inside with tables and
chairs packed so tightly the next
table may as well be your own. There
is a small band usually including
Nikos, the owner, playing old
rembetika songs. Unlike many of the
other ouzeries and restaurants they
play unamplified.If you are looking for the real thing get a table near the band and join in when the other people in the room clap their hands and sing along to the songs that everyone in Greece seems to know the words to.
The Rebecca cafeneon
around the corner on Maoulis street is
small and if you don't get there
early you won't get a seat. But it
is one of the few places that
existed before Psiri became
fashionable and if you are looking
for an unpretentious place to have
an ouzo and a meze, you can come
here at any time of the day or
night. They grill octopus on the
little charcoal barbecue right on
the sidewalk. The food is not the
greatest but the atmosphere is and
after a few ouzos everything
tastes good. The Illiosporo
next door is a little more
sophisticated, playing jazz and
swing rather than the old
Rembetika songs played in
Rebecca, and the snacks they serve
are delicious. Both places have a
look that seems to say "If you
are a tourist-get lost", but
you will find the service very
friendly and if they did not want
you there they would not have
printed the menus in
English.
Unlike the Platia Iroon most of the
restaurants and clubs play amplified
music and while in Platia Iroon the
nights can last forever, with people at the
tables singing along to their favorite
songs, in other places you will hear
singing and dancing and maybe even an
occasional plate smashing.
Further down the street called
Agion Anargirion, there are more
eating and drinking places
including Embros, a hip,
New York City style bar. If you are into Latin food, music and dancing there is
the Cubanita Havana Club at
28 Kariaskakis. The Naxos on
Kristokopidou street is the
most unpretentious ouzerie in all
of Psiri and specializes in local
food from the island of Naxos,
like cheeses, sausages and grilled
octopus. It is kind of hard to find but if you walk around Platia Iroon and continue past the kouloria factory and Cubanita and make the second right you will find it next to the church. My favorite winter place is Taverna Psiri on Aisxylou Street. They also have a garden in the back for the summer. Right next door is a Psistaria (Grill House) called Odos Aisxylou at #14-16 and they have lots of frilled meats and some nice salads too. Both are less
than a block from Iroon Square. There
are techno-clubs, bars, live
music clubs, sixties music
bars...and I think you are getting
the idea that Psiri is not just a
place where people go and drink
ouzo and listen to old Rembetika
songs all night. Psiri is an all-ages
party and it is not uncommon for
there to be a traffic jam on
Athinas street at 5am on a big
weekend.
Whats the coolest place in Psiri? In my opinion Therion just off Takis street if you are about my age and are turned off by the music you hear in most clubs these days. Its for a more mature crowd though youngsters with good taste hang out there as well. Be warned that like most bars and clubs it is smokey and you may want to put your clothes on the balcony of your hotel when you get home or your whole room will smell of cigarettes when you wake up. 
Be aware that when you enter
Psiri, your first instinct will be
to think "This can't be the
place". The area seems dangerous
and dark, but its neither. It's
patrolled by rent-a-cops who keep
the Omonia Square riff-raff from
making inroads into the area and
as you follow the small streets
towards the center it gets
livelier and more well lit until
suddenly you realize you are here.
The easiest way to enter Psiri is
from one of the small roads
between the Attalos Hotel and
Monistiraki square on Athinas
street. Walk in and make a right
on Miaouli and you will pass
Rebecca and Illiosporos on the way
to Iroon square. If you are
coming down Ermou pass Monastiraki
Square and turn right on Themidos
(turns into Miaoulis) or
Kariaskaki and both will lead you
to Iroon Square.The best time to be here is during Apokreas, Greece's Carnival Season when the streets are packed with people in costume and the night goes on forever.
There are numerous cafes and
restaurants open on Saturday and
Sunday, and very few cars to bother
you though you should keep plenty of
change on hand because the street
musicians and the girls selling
flowers come in a never-ending flow
and the more you drink the harder it
is to say no. There are also plans for
the opening of many new galleries and
theaters in this district and the
bordering former gasworks area, many
of which have already opened their
doors. This area is for the explorer.
Those who have tired of endless
T-shirt shops and Mousaka signs and
being danced to by men in evzone
costumes while you drink domestika and
look at a room full of people as
foreign as you, this is the place to
go. This area is for people who want
to see what it is like to be young and
hip and hang out in
Athens.
Or even the too young to be hip. Go and check out Gelatomania on the corner of Takis and Aisopou 21 for the best gelato ice-cream in Athens. My last week in Athens I probably put on ten pounds because we went here every night (mostly because of my daughter but we did not really argue against it). I think you will have a hard time finding a better selection
of Italian ice-creams and special sundaes anywhere. Andrea gives them high marks for their espresso and coffees too. So it is a good place to begin or end a day in Athens. Say hi to Michalis who is very excited to be on the internet. Very convenient if you are staying at the Attalos or the Cecil hotels.
If you happen to be in Psiri in the daytime go by the Antique store of Apostolis Sofialides at #15 Pittaki right off Kariaskakis. He has a nice collection of antiques including easy to carry home gifts like old photos and advertisments. Check out that candle shop too if you can find it, next to the Elvis Costello place. Also