Passing by central Greece, an outsider could possibly be forgiven for not stopping in Volos. Located alongside the Aegean coast of Thessaly province, the economic metropolis is a grindingly monotonous patchwork of concrete block buildings; all the pieces of historic curiosity was leveled throughout a sequence of devastating earthquakes within the Fifties. But, amongst Greeks, Volos is rightfully celebrated. To overlook it might be to overlook one of many Mediterranean’s most interesting culinary traditions: the tsipouradiko.
A tsipouradiko, actually, is a spot that serves tsipouro, the colorless Greek brandy distilled from grape pomace: the skins, seeds, and stems leftover from wine manufacturing. First distilled by the Orthodox monks of Mount Athos over 500 years in the past, the spirit is intimately tied to historical Greek winemaking traditions and is the nation’s most diversified and cherished distillate, from which others—together with ouzo—descend. At these taverns, tsipouro, usually made domestically, is served over ice both from a communal bottle referred to as the mostro or from particular person mini bottles, just like the nips sometimes discovered on airplanes and in resort minibars.
When the tsipouradiko server involves your desk, there’s just one query that issues: “With or with out?” Would you want your tsipouro infused with aniseed and botanicals or plain? There is no such thing as a improper reply, and responding units in movement an limitless sequence of shareable mezes, “items” despatched out on the whim of the kitchen. Your solely duty is to maintain consuming.
I’ve come to Volos from my dwelling in Athens to discover ways to navigate this mysterious terrain. Ingesting and eating at a tsipouradiko, not to mention a number of of them, is just not one thing one can do solo, so I introduced alongside my spouse—a seasoned diplomat and tolerant companion—for ethical, linguistic, and digestive assist. I made a decision to begin the place the phenomenon first started: within the working-class neighborhood of Nea Ionia, which as soon as housed Volos’ massive inhabitants of displaced Greek Anatolian refugees.
As soon as we sit down at Demiris Conventional Tsipouradiko, a family-run institution with a neighborhood really feel, the server presents us with a menu. Perusing it’s tempting, but it surely’s solely a take a look at; these within the know order solely drinks and let the home handle the remainder. Usually, patrons obtain not less than one meze per serving of tsipouro, and extra within the preliminary spherical. Your first tsipouro ought to by no means be your final.
We order two measures of the home tsipouro—one “with” and one “with out.” Whereas proprietor Dimitris Demiris sits at a desk by the kitchen, his son Nakos brings us two diminutive, unmarked bottles together with water and an ice bucket. The tsipouro is good and floral, a harmonizing foil for the smoked mackerel, pickled peppers, grilled sardines, and taramosalata that observe. Whereas tsipouradika are discovered throughout Thessaly, those in Volos concentrate on contemporary seafood plucked every day from the Aegean Sea.
You probably have an allergy or aversion to a dish, or notably like one thing, you possibly can inform your waiter, however as with most worthwhile journey experiences, enjoyment of tsipouradika requires a willingness to give up to the second. For those who can embrace the spontaneous nature of it (which additionally helps remove the omnipresent traveler stress of ordering the improper factor), it may be as pleasurable as eating at your finest good friend’s home. Consuming in Volos turns into a belief fall with nothing however mushy landings and among the freshest seafood you’ll ever encounter.
The subsequent day, we go to Tsipouradiko Nikos and Gianna, a brief stroll from the docks the place Volos fishers promote seafood straight from their boats every morning. It was 1:15 p.m., an early lunch by Greek requirements, however we nonetheless needed to wait. “That is one of the best one,” a Greek girl subsequent to me in line says conspiratorially.
We finally settle right into a desk and order two glasses of home tsipouro with anise, the clear liquid turning milky white because the ice melts. It’s a raucous scene incongruent with the serene mulberry-lined courtyard. Arms shoot up at common intervals with shouted requests for extra tsipouro. {Couples}, younger and outdated, and households, large and small, cram in alongside crowded all-male teams. The waitstaff snake by the tables, leaving dishes of their wake. The whole lot right here is made à la minute—they don’t even have an oven. After I ask proprietor Gianna Xantinidou if she may share a recipe, she replies, “We don’t have recipes. You may have grilled or fried.”
Although her husband, Nikos Mastrogianni, cooks, Xantinidou is clearly operating the present. Wearing all black with aviators, she navigates the frenetic house with two bottles below her arms and a ruthless effectivity, like a Greek Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2. Diners work their method by dozens of mezes: charred octopus over a mattress of untamed greens referred to as kritama, or sea fennel; charcoal-grilled fish liver, tender and bursting with briny richness. Some diners have dietary restrictions, some an aversion to or fondness for mussels, some are in want of one other spherical—Xantinidou tends to all of them with no single wasted motion.
There’s limitless room for creativity and variation in Volos’ roughly 300 tsipouradika. Within the Nineteen Eighties, across the time the College of Thessaly opened right here, tsipouradika advanced from institutions that solely facilitated male day consuming to one thing extra akin to trendy eating places. This transformation introduced new calls for and alternatives. Most areas expanded their menus with substantial à la carte choices, and a few started opening for dinner to accommodate the ladies and households who dine there at present.
Flokos, opened in 2016 by Dimitris Petrou, adopts a fusion strategy. Following his research in Thessaloniki, Petrou cooked in French, Italian, and Japanese eating places, and his mezes embrace tuna tartare and shrimp tempura alongside dishes that honor the city’s previous, comparable to pickled tsitsiravla (wild pistachio greens), kritama, and different substances adopted into the native weight-reduction plan by necessity, remodeled by adversity into delicacies.
Ta Filarakia, alternatively, blends tsipouradiko fare with Greek taverna staples. Steamed mussels and easy grilled fish share the desk with a seafood orzo, or kritharoto (ready like Italian risotto), in addition to blocks of sesame-studded feta, breaded, fried, and drizzled with honey. Began in 2013 by Dimitris Chantziplakis and his spouse, Stella, the hallmark of Ta Filarakia, actually “The Pals,” is its heat and attentive service.
And simply down the highway is the paradox that’s Mezen. Recognized all through Greece as a culinary vacation spot, it’s one of many least conventional tsipouradika on the town: Its choices are unapologetically trendy, neither of its founders is from Volos, and within the excessive season, roughly half its patrons are vacationers. But there could also be no higher entry level to the native tradition. Luxurious resort supervisor Andreas Diakodimitris and government chef Greg Chelmis each misplaced their jobs following Greece’s 2009 debt disaster. In 2013, they turned their skills to opening a extra up to date tsipouradiko.
The home tsipouro at Mezen, produced by Kardasi of Tyrnavos, is fragrant and expressive, however the remainder of their wide-reaching bottle choice is price sampling, too. We style tsipouro and different spirits from all through the nation—floral and funky, full-bodied and delicate. Many guests, particularly foreigners, are reluctant to drink a number of consecutive glasses of high-proof spirits. However Chelmis and Diakodimitris see a direct throughline from historical Greek symposia to the tsipouradiko, the place the purpose is just not overindulgence however moderately transcendence by stability of meals, drink, and good dialog. “You don’t come right here to eat,” Chelmis emphasizes. “You come right here to drink.”
Each considered one of his 70-odd dishes is meant to enrich drink, not the opposite method round. And whereas spontaneity is anticipated, Chelmis notes that randomness shouldn’t be mistaken for chaos: A typical meal at all times begins with one thing salty and bitter, for instance, smoked mackerel and pickled greens—umami bombs to decelerate the consuming whereas thrilling one’s thirst. Extra substantial dishes observe, often grilled or fried fish, octopus, or shellfish. Then one thing spreadable like puréed favas, fish roe, or kopanisti, the spicy cheese dip impressed by the sharp, funky Cycladic cheese of the identical title. These mid-courses are sometimes punctuated by grilled potatoes with blue cheese and tomato, a starch to bind the earlier rounds. And in the event you’ve lasted this lengthy and the tsipouro remains to be flowing, that’s when you possibly can anticipate rarer delicacies like crab or oysters to reach.
Whenever you sign (deliberately or in any other case) that you’re winding down, the restaurant brings a closing dish, seemingly the one land mammal you’ll encounter: a sausage from Mount Pelion, maybe, or, extra generally, pastourma (a spiced, cured, air-dried meat—and one other Anatolian import) with fried eggs and chilly beer. This may occasionally seem to be an unreasonably heavy conclusion, however tsipouradika are historically daytime spots, so people want these fatty meals to soak up the alcohol and prepared them for returning to work.
At O Kavouras, the oldest conventional tsipouradiko within the metropolis, I meet Alexandros Psychoulis, writer of Ingesting Tsipouro in Volos: A Guide. His e book is a short, hilarious, vibes-ahead introduction for outsiders and is anxious much less with the historical past of the drink and extra with the proper atmospheric circumstances for having fun with it. It seems, O Kavouras meets most of them.
Inside, the tavern appears frozen in time. Mirrors are emblazoned with commercials for long-defunct companies. An outdated protected that when contained drunken sailors’ valuables sits within the again nook. Named “The Crab” after the sailor who opened it in 1959, the tsipouradiko handed to his nephew, Alexandros Alexandrou, in 1989, who then offered it to Odysseas “Sakis” Papoulias in 2022, a self-proclaimed common since he was 15 years outdated. Alexandrou nonetheless drops in most days—a photograph of him and Papoulias, now 34, hangs subsequent to the kitchen—and the operation hasn’t missed a beat.
“The one secret is that we get up at 5 o’clock within the morning and go to the market,” Papoulias says. “We solely purchase contemporary. We don’t see the individuals who come right here as clients. We see them as friends in our dwelling.”
The whole lot at O Kavouras, all the way down to the smallest element, demonstrates a inflexible adherence to custom. The chairs are organized going through outward, not towards one another, like the unique tsipouradika. This, Psychoulis notes, prevents direct confrontation and the kind of critical dialog more likely to derail a jovial consuming session. The napkins are wax paper, usefully doubling as plates. And most significantly, maybe, is that there are not any menus to be seen. There is just one factor you possibly can order: tsipouro, with or with out. As Psychoulis writes in his e book: “[Tsipouradika] are usually not companies, they’re loci of compassion.” No considering is required, simply succumbing to the kindness of Greeks bearing items.
