When old Thessaloniki met old Athens
For more than eight decades, the Georgakakis family has associated its name with retsina and fine tastes. Its history, which began with a winery in pre-war Thessaloniki, continues today in the historical tavern "The Old Athens". And yes: its name is inextricably linked to the history of the city.
THE PHOTOGRAPHY WAS TAKEN AT "THE OLD ATHENS" TAVERN, AT 24 IMBROU STREET, IN KATO TOUMBA.
EVERYTHING STARTED FROM PAPAFI.
Once upon a time, somewhere in the late 1930s, Manolis Georgakakis, grandfather of the current owner of "The Old Athens", created a distillery on Papafi Street. In addition to the wonderful retsina, ouzo and tsipouro that he prepared, his customers had the opportunity to enjoy some fine mezes and discuss the current affairs of the season, before heading home. Unfortunately, this nice everyday life was not to last for long... When the war broke out, he was forced to flee with his family to Crete. When the war ended for good and the Germans left Greece, he returned to Thessaloniki to find the place destroyed. He didn't give up – he decided to start over.
In 1962, the business was taken over by his son, Konstantinos, a distiller himself, who – following in his father's footsteps – continues to brew and bottle retsina, ouzo and tsipouro and offer them to his customers. A painting hanging on the wall of today's tavern (and which was based on a vintagephotograph) allows the visitor to take a sneak peek into the past and that place. Apart from the Georgakakis business, you can't help but admire the architectural beauty of the building. Thessaloniki at its most beautiful... On another wall are the company's old bottling labels, which have survived the passage of time and reveal to visitors the family's glorious past in the city's distillery history.
For the storage needs of his business, Konstantinos Georgakakis found a space in a nearby location. But he quickly decided to make better use of it, turning it into a tavern. He found a good cook who took over the kitchen and he continued to do what he knew best: making top quality retsina the traditional way. He used Roditis and Savvatiano, fermented in oak barrels. The name of the tavern: "The Old Athens".
The question can reasonably arise as to how the name of the shop came about, when none of the Georgakakis family had the slightest connection to the capital. None of the family... Most of the people, however, who lived around the tavern had. They were refugees from the City (and from other places in today's Turkey) who initially settled in Athens, in refugee areas such as Haidari or Nea Smyrni. Afterwards, the State moved them to Thessaloniki, in the area that was – reasonably – called the "Athenian Settlement". A bit of the store's semi-basement, a bit of barrel-aged retsina and the setting, which refers to Plaka, were enough to christen the place "The Old Athens".
From the first years of its operation, the tavern became a landmark for those who loved retsina. It didn't matter if you were a factory owner, a lawyer, a doctor or a man of toil and struggle: in this particular place, money didn't matter in the slightest. People of all classes became one. Especially if one of the regulars brought their guitar and started singing. And retsina flowed abundantly...
THE NEXT STEP.
In 1985, the current owner, Manolis Georgakakis, who bears the name of his grandfather, joined the business. It was the time when he had finished his military service and had made the big decision not to continue with studies, but to dedicate himself soul and body to the tavern. "Forty years of my presence in 'The Old Athens' will soon be completed - I have not regretted it for a single moment when I became a tavern keeper" confesses Mr. Georgakakis.
And if in the first years of his presence in the tavern he was under the guidance of his father, soon the baton of the orchestration passed into his own hands. From the end of 2000 he began to gradually develop the business. All the pieces of images and experiences he had acquired from his visits to other countries (and places) began to come together and form the complete picture of the puzzle. The place kept all the elements of its DNA: the respect for the Greek tradition and the past of the place, the atmosphere of company and collective fun and, of course, retsina that generations and generations of visitors have loved. "Retsina pairs with everything," notes Mr. Georgakakis: "With fish, with stews, with meat. With everything. Let alone that it has associated its name with the Greeks’ nights out to eat. We say, 'Let's go for retsina'. No one says, 'Let's go for steak'...".
Now, in "The Old Athens" you can distinguish "touches" of an Italian trattoria and a French bistro. Next to sutzukakia, ribs, veal tongue and yuvetsaki you will find cuts, rib eye and an excellent variety of wines from all over the world. However, retsina will always be the queen of the shop. After all, the current owner's fatherserved it to Sotiris Moustakasin a scene from the 1987 movie "O Krokodeilakias", which was filmed in the shop and forever imprinted the image of the old shop...
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