Historic Aiolou Street / EATERY Bairaktaris

Our walk in downtown Athens along Aiolou Street actually starts near Monastiraki Square. Outside the central fish and meat markets, the tiny shops entice you with their spices, herbs, mountain tea, nuts and dried fruit.

We stop at one to buy some garam marsala. Inside, the Pakistani clerk weighs the spice, deftly wraps it up in a little plastic bag while he tells us it’s his favorite spice and to remind us to use it at the end of cooking.  We decide to explore the market (known as the Varvakeios Agora) which was built in the late 19^th century after a fire destroyed the previous one.  It is named for a man named Varvakis (first name unknown) described as a “gentleman pirate” (surely an intriguing title)

Fish lovers, this is your place! The fish section of the market has nearly 100 separate fish and shellfish stalls, from “lowly” sardines to octopus to giant tuna. All the sellers boast they have the freshest of the fresh.

But it’s the meat section that assaults your senses with the carcasses of various animals swinging, with heads, hearts, spleens etc. displayed, with the thwack of the cleaver and the sellers shouting. This was late in the day so it wasn’t very crowded and the butchers, probably tired, were a bit subdued.

A few small eating places in the market cook right in front of you and bring the frying pan to the table to eat from.  Some are open early in the morning, some 24/7 and their specialty is patsas, lamb innard soup, guaranteed to calm a hangover.  

Across from the market you can find huge tubs of olives and all kinds of cheeses and fresh fruit and vegetables. Though not really for tourists, I’d say the market is a must visit. So, after the mostly raw food experience, now we’re on our way to EATERY Bairaktaris at Aiolou 29 for cooked food.

Aiolou, also spelled “Aeolou” or “Eoulou,” is an ancient street named for “Aeolus” the keeper of the winds, as the street begins in the Plaka at the corner of the Roman Agora at the Tower of the Winds, a sundial and water clock built in the 2^nd century BC and dedicated to the winds.

Here the street has almost a bucolic air with the trees, hidden garden and stone wall.

But very soon it becomes busy on one side, with the usual tourist shops selling ancient armour among all the other products,

and on the other side, the ruins of Hadrian’s Library, created by the emperor Hadrian in 132 A.D. during the Roman rule in Athens. Definitely-worth a visit.

If you turn around here (but be careful with all the motorcycles), you get a great view of the Acropolis.

A few blocks on, you hit Ermou Street, the main shopping street of Athens, named appropriately for Hermes, not only messenger of the gods but also the ancient god of trade.  

We began our walk however from the opposite side of Aiolou after exiting the market. Here at Plateia Kotzia, across from the neoclassical City Hall building, on display is an excavation of an ancient neighborhood and also cemetery, used from 9^th to 3^rd c. B.C.. This was discovered in the 1980’s when they were building an underground parking lot.  It does seem that nearly everywhere if you dig just a little you find the ancient city below your feet.  Like many cities in antiquity, Athens was surrounded by a wall with various gates. The so-called Acharnean gate which goes to the town a little north of the center, had been lost until it was recently discovered in this area.

A lost gate, neighborhood, cemetery. In another recent discovery, some municipal workers digging about a year ago on Aiolou, unearthed a perfectly formed marble head built into a sewage pipe under the pavement. The head was identified as Hermes (he does seem to have had a connection with this area!) See blog, Riding the Second Wave for more on this discovery.

This find is one sign that the road was a main thoroughfare in antiquity. Other ancient statues have also been found in the area.

Aiolou, mostly a pedestrian street since 2003, was one of the first streets in Athens to be paved in 1860. In the 19^th and early 20^th c. it was a street of neoclassical buildings and textile and fabric stores.   You can still see some fabric places, and some very old lefka eidi (sheets, towels, tablecloths) stores, but actually you can find whatever you want on this street – shoe stores, household items, a branch of the Ianos bookstore, clothing stores with racks outside, stores with sunglasses. This store in the photo had everything from shoes to umbrellas to books to more ancient armour, this it seems with a Carnival touch. 

Besides all the clothing and household stores, the street boasts several beautiful churches. One is Panagia (Our Lady) of Chrysopolitisa originally built on this site in 1705 but destroyed in Ottoman attacks in 1826 and then rebuilt in a mix of Neoclassical style and Byzantine.

Next to the larger church is an exquisite small one, Agia Paraskevi,

The other well known church is Agia Irini (Saint Irene). When the new Greek state was formed in 1830, this was the church of the city until the “Mitropoli” was built a few blocks away.

But Aiolou’s claim to fame now is not the churches or the clothing shops, or the street art or even the street music.

Aiolou Street today is more than the king, it is the veritable emperor of street food.  And what food!  We pass on the way the Pera Café with Constantinople (Istanbul) specialties and two fast food legends, always with a line waiting outside:  Falafellas, just a hole in the wall really, one of the first falafel places in the area and Feyrouz, a little off of Aiolou with Greek-Syrian specialties.

Now we’re approaching Agia Irini Square. Once a central flower market, now the square has one shop left selling flowers. Behind the bars and cafes are some lovely apartment buildings, like this one in pink.  

And finally we’ve arrived at EATERY Bairaktaris at number 29! Right off the square, here it is with its calming light green chairs and wooden tables with little pots of basil. It took us a while but there’s just so much to look at, absorb and enjoy along the way.

Like the other eating places along the pedestrian street, EATERY Bairaktaris is great for watching the stream of people walking by, but we take a table a little further back in the square. Although there’s a threat of rain, it’s a warm October afternoon and still feels good to be outside.

Here we talk with Gena Deliyannis, Athens native (and one of my favorite former students) who’s a consultant chef with the newly opened restaurant. Gena was gracious enough to sit and join us for a while as we sampled fresh delicious homemade lemonade with mint and I asked her some questions.

How did your opening go?  How are you doing now?

Well, it wasn’t the best time for a restaurant to open.  It was the beginning of August — not only a time when Greeks are on vacation, but it was over 40 degrees, the height of the heat wave!  Still, we had customers from the very beginning, many tourists. And there are still a lot of tourists in Athens. When they leave, we’ll see if the place is as popular with Greeks. It’s a little early to say. Actually we were supposed to open earlier in the summer but we had various delays, caused by the “misfunction”  of the utility companies in mid-summer. The delay turned out to be good in a way as we had more time to train all our staff. 

How did you get involved with Bairaktaris Eatery?

Well, Bairaktaris [note:  a well known classic taverna on Monastiraki Square] wanted to expand and when this building here was available, they rented it out and asked me to act as a consultant and chef.  Because this space was originally a clothing store, we had to start everything from scratch.  I was involved in everything, including designing the kitchen, hiring and setting up the menu.

The menu is delectable all right. How did you decide on what to include?

I was pretty much free to choose whatever I wanted.  Along with thinking about all the kinds of dishes, we also wanted to consider reasonable prices. We had a motto in mind: “fast, fresh, tasty.” Bairaktaris did have one condition, that we had to include kebabs, since that’s their specialty!  We took into account the makeup of the clientele here.  Agia Irini is a trendy spot with a young crowd, so we wanted to appeal to the young crowd around, and not have the classic taverna fare. 

So, one of my considerations in creating the menu was to appeal not only to meat eaters, but to vegetarians and vegans. This is a growing trend in Greece as diners have become more health conscious. It used to be that if someone was a vegetarian or vegan, in the kitchen they might take out whatever meat might be on the plate but that’s not practical!  The dishes need to be planned and designed from the beginning.

In the Charcoal Grill section of the menu we have some dishes like spare ribs with pomegranate sauce, chicken “under a brick” served with harissa sauce, chives sauce and grilled lemon, smash burger, roasted eggplant, but also a new dish for the season, a sweet potato cut in half and stuffed with mizithra cheese, spicy aioli, spring onion, coriander, chili and lime.

In the salad category, I’m about to introduce a new salad with warm manouri cheese (a slightly creamy semi soft white cheese) black lentils, roasted grapes and pomegranate molasses.

Your manouri salad for sure is a work of art.  One of your breakfast specialties is your avocado toast. How popular is your breakfast menu?

Very!  And we have it until 4 pm on weekends.  The avocado toast is available vegan or if you want, non vegan, with an egg on top on crispy pita, with roka (rocket or arugula), coriander and chile and “everything” bagel seasoning.

And besides the vegan trend, this is another big difference in Greek eating habits, the idea of going out for breakfast or brunch.  Going out for coffee yes or a drink or lunch or dinner, but brunch was never part of Greek dining habits until recently.

Gena, you got your training outside of Greece. Can you tell me a little about your background?

I got my degree in management in the U.S. and then got my culinary degree and started working in kitchens in the Boston area.  I originally wanted to be a pastry chef but I changed my mind.  Perhaps it’s silly but I didn’t like all the stickiness in my hands from the sugar! So I went down the savory road.  When I moved to London, I worked for one of Yotem Ottolenghi’s restaurants. This one was pretty interesting, a  fusion of Middle Eastern and Malaysian.  But I’m not actually a big fan of fusion cooking, I like more a purity of one cuisine.  I returned to Athens several years ago intending to open my own place but then the pandemic struck and I’m so glad that I didn’t open then!

You call Bairaktaris EATERY Bairaktaris street food. But you have such wonderful creative dishes, more than what we usually think of as street food.

Thank you. Well, what makes it street food actually is that you sit at a table yes, but you order from inside – [note: actually there’s a big sign on the stand at the edge of the restaurant:  ORDER HERE] and then you can sit anywhere and eat.  This helps us keep the service going fast.  So we’ve kept this approach and also our motto:  fast, fresh and tasty. 

How about the location here?

It’s great – there are always people passing by from early morning to late at night. There’s a lot of competition, but that’s good too.

Be sure to come back in the evening  to taste one of our cocktails like “frosé ,” frozen rose wine with strawberry or Apple T & T, which is green apple puree and apple syrup, tsiporo (raki) and tonic with basil. Or you can always try one of our desserts…

The inside of the Eatery is quite lovely with its pink walls and black and white modern décor.

Gena has a lot of ideas and plans, including to eventually write a cookbook on cuisines of different areas of Greece.  We wish her great success.

As we had to leave, we made a few orders to take away and try at home: along with a delicious falafel with tahini sauce, we decided to try one of the specialties, spare ribs with pomegranate sauce, so tender it melted in your mouth. The potatoes with sweet smoked paprika and oregano in a sour cream and chive sauce were the perfect accompaniment.

We’ll be back for more for sure – main dishes, breakfast, dessert, cocktails, there’s a lot to try on this varied and interesting menu.

We continued our walk past a number of jewelry vendors, a few more street food places, including Asian among all the Mediterranean shops. (Asian street food has really taken off around Syntagma Square). At Ermou, if you go left, you can follow the shopping street up to Syntagma; a right takes you to Monastiraki Square, where we got the metro to head back home and sample our delights after a little while.

So if you’re in the area, be sure to take a little detour down to 29 Aiolou Street to grab a bite and have a drink and say hello to Gena.  Your only problem is deciding what to order! EATERY Bairaktaris is open from 8:30 to 12:30 am, Friday and Saturday to 1:30 am. Kali orexi!  Good appetite!

In a few days leaving for Spain. More in next blog…

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Sherri Moshman Paganos is a writer and former educator, inspired by her life in Athens, where she and her husband are happily retired and enjoying their travels in Greece and abroad. You can check out her writing — fiction, non-fiction, poetry and articles here.