One Winter in Thessaloniki: Nice little cafe on the corner of Via Egnatia

One of my favourite cities in the world is Thessaloniki. I kind of became smitten by this 'big village' - as some locals affectionately call it - in the summer of 2007, when I was here for just a few days while in transit from the island of Limnos in northern Aegean to southern Germany. The city attracts me because of its vibrant atmosphere, its elegant neo-classical buildings, and the presence of dozens charismatic cafes of all shapes and sizes in all parts of the city. Availability of good coffee at reasonable prices at almost every turn of the corner makes Thessaloniki so irresistable to me :)

So, I took hold of the opportunity to spend a few weeks during the winter months in Thessaloniki, with the intention of getting to know this charismatic port city better. Thessaloniki has quite a bit to offer if you are into coffee, history and culture. The historical centre of Thessaloniki is dotted with Byzantine churches big and small, Roman ruins as old as the Pantheon in Rome, and Ottoman era buildings and hamams built by the Turks when this region was still part of the Ottoman Empires. As for the coffee and the cafe scene, thanks to the presence of more than 60,000 students at the two public universities and a dozen other institutes of vocational trainings and higher education, Thessaloniki has a steady supply of congenial cafes, catering to all tastes and wallet-sizes. The variety of cafes range from the down-to-earth, no-frill coffee and sandwich place near the universities for simple daily take-away lunch, to the sophisticated and elegant cafes housed in neo-classical buildings with marble tables, high ceilings, French chandeliers, mahogany and rosewood furnitures, where smartly-dressed ladies and gentlemen spend the afternoon and the evening sipping their latte while engaging in some serious discussions or reading newspapers and books.

On the second day of my arrival in Thessaloniki, I came across this small cafe on Iasonidou, just 10m around the corner from the famous Via Egnatia, the main throughfare of Thessaloniki. Built in the 2nd century BC by the Romans, Via Egnatia used to connect the port city of Durres in Albania, via Edessa, Thessaloniki, Kavala in Grecce with Constantinopole, the present-day Istanbul. Although large parts of Via Egnatia had fallen into disuse, the section leading into and out of Thessaloniki is still very much the most important traffic throughfare in this city.

I am not sure what the name of this place is, but its homely atmosphere and the illy caffe sign on the door immediately attract my attention. The cafe is very small, but is a very tidy and sweet place to have a cup of coffee and some savoury snacks or freshly-prepared sandwich. On the wall is a long table with high stools for indoor customers; outside on the sidewalk right next to the window is a table for smokers. 

The cafe is run by a very friendly young man who speaks English. Customers can order made-to-order baguette or mini-crossiant sandwiches, toasts, muffins, or choose some of the sweet and savoury local snacks and pastries from the display windows. Some of my favourite baked items, which are also specialities of Thesssaloniki, are the mini-crossiant with nutella fillings; small sausage rolls, and meat pies with crunchy pastry layers. For some reasons, these sweet and savoury snacks go very well with an illy caffe latte. One characteristic of savoury snacks in Thessaloniki is, they are sold by weight, which means the pies or the sausage rolls were weighed on a scale and the customers pay according to the weight of the items chosen. I found this a much fairer way to purchase bakery items, as most people know not all breads and pies come in the same size and weight. Very often in countries where they charge a standard price regardless of its size or weight, you see customers spending a long time picking over the items, trying to find the biggest piece for the same price. By paying for the items by weight, it saves everybody the misery of time-wasting when trying to pick up the seemingly bigger pieces in the basket.   

This cafe also offers take-away service. Most of the customers are students and people working in nearby shops and offices. It has now become part of my afternoon routine to have a latte macchiato, a mini-crossiant filled with nutella, and a small sausage roll at this nice little place whenever I go into the city centre. Granted, this cafe does not have grand decor or expensive furnishing, but compared to the prices charged by some places in western Europe, this little place offers genuinely hospitality and good value for money.

Copyrights@2011. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.