Xara: A retro legend pastry shop in Patision
Growing up with old Greek films, the questions we had as children were many: Why did Athens look so different in its neoclassical buildings, clean roads and few cars? Why couldn’t a sister get married before her brother and go out alone? My eternal query, however, was about the heroes’ frenzy meeting in pastry shops. The heroines, often dressed in a brocade dress and matching hat, met their girlfriends, or their romantic rendezvous at grandiose mirrors.
There, waiters in plainclothes and bow tie brought them pastes and fluffy almond cakes.
Neighbors starring in old Greek films – Patission, Kipseli, Panathenaic area, have changed radically. “Xara” has been in Ano Patissia since 1969, when the golden age of confectionery was coming to an end.
Despite the fact that Athenians no longer make appointments at pastry shops, Xara remains terribly popular and as a meeting place. According to the legend, Xara herself came from Constantinople carrying the recipe for ekmek and kaymak in her shoe. The shop now belongs to her family and is clearly left in the 1980s, with sepia glass walls, the old-fashioned badge and a huge brown list. The sweets have names like Rocky, Cuckoo’s Nest, Maracaibo (sour milk chocolate) and Easter (baklava with ice cream). The presentation is equally retro: we ordered ice cream and it came with flags, while penguins floated at the base of the glass!
Two of Xara’s famous specialties: Ekmek with ice cream and Chicago ice cream.
Here you will find 6 versions of ekmek, including guzel ekmek (bread pudding base and buffalo cream) and a vanilla ice cream ekmek, but the most popular version is the civic ekmek ice cream, opera – as the catalog explains. – the ice cream is made from buffalo milk. The base is almost crunchy with sweet syrup and fits perfectly with the creamy texture of the ice cream.
Chicago again is a must have for chocolate addicts: An extremely bold (stress the “brave” don’t mind getting something else) serving of ice cream with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and chopped almonds.
Although old patisserie Athens has long been lost, Hara has survived, doing what it knows to do extraordinarily and without change. So, put on your brocade dress and matching hat and we’ll talk about that.
Address: Patision (October 28) 339, Athens
Phone: +30 210 228 7266
Hours: 09.00 until late at midnight (depending on the world it opens later, but it is good to call earlier)
Photo Credits: Manteau Stam
Text: Despoina Trivoli
