This is as local as it gets. A renown food joint in Volos serving tsipouro and meze (aka tsipouradiko) with a long history since 1989. Alekos Alexandrou, its original owner and a former navy man, may have retired as of 2022 but Zissis Papoulias is now running the show with top marks.
just before 1pm and the working crowd is already taking the streets to find their local food joint. Zissis comes to the table, a middle aged short man with a sunburnt face and a fast temper, and he only has one question: “with it without?” [Anise that is]. You see, in Volos, the places offering meze do not really work with a menu but rather base everything off the quantity of tsipouro you can consume. And as the small plates come plenty, we wash down the local delicacies with some alcohol even if it’s a weekday lunch. Work can wait. A group of friends arrive, exchanging pleasantries with the patrons around when one of them asks our waiter half-joking: “can you please turn the sun to face our table?”. As if with a magic wand, the man in charge of this beautiful joint could also tweak the sun’s rays to their liking.
As long as you can take down more tsipouro the meze plates will keep on coming. First up a small grilled fish, some pickled vegetables, a loaf of bread and some ice. Exactly what you need to start kicking back and enjoying the slow tempo of life.
The next batch includes small fried shrimps, a tomato salad, oven baked potatoes and a juicy, fine grilled octopus. You see it’s like one of those things where you don’t know what’s coming up next and that’s just fine. Amazing delicacies in this narrow street of Volos that is definitely worth a visit (or two).
Just make sure you get here on time cause spacing is limited. And after all, the crew will not love you if you show up at 16:00 and want to stay on drinking till the late hours of the afternoon. Alekos, the former owner, used to tell all patrons around 16:00 “time to go home fellows… so that I can also go to mine“, half-jokingly. But with an authentic and warm smile. Hospitality at its best!
