The best of the best - Kaoe Bar in Athens

It's all Greek to me, is an expression that I've never fully understood until my recent two week jaunt in this wonderful country. The Northerner and I were there for one of her best friends wedding, which took place on the truly beautiful but quiet island of Andros. Given the opportunity we turned it into a full on bar, beach and island hopping tour that included Syros, Mykonos and of course Athens.

And of all the wonderful bars that we visited Kaoe was the best. In fact it was the best bar that the Northerner and I have visited in years. Honestly it was that good. Of course looking at the (deliberately selected) picture you may not see the appeal of a place with two elderly men sitting outside a tiny cafe / bar in a mechanics yard. But that is the point. Let me explain.

Before I get into writing about this bar, have you spotted the deliberate spelling mistake? If you look at the photo you can see the name of the bar peaking through in what looks like Kaoe, but in Greek is Kappa, Alpha, Phi, Epsilon - the Phi being the o with the strike through the centre. As I can't get that character on my keyboard I've had to spell it in English. Apologies to you grammarians who seem to constitute a rather large percentage of my readership.

Kaoe is located by chances across the road from the wonderful boutique hotel that we stayed in, Ochre and Brown at 7 Leokoriou in the hipper then hip Psyrri district. Think Shoreditch in the late eighties / early nineties, or the lower East side back in the day and you have Psyrri. Kaoe is set in a courtyard the entrance to which is 'guarded' by an elderly gentleman, his vintage shop and his Alsatian. The bar shares the space with a furniture maker, bronze mason, second hand radio shop, record / CD shop and a small block of apartments. And by day it is what it is - a working, functioning part of the city. However by night it is transformed. The courtyard, where the workers and local residents park their scooters becomes the main space of the bar, the apartment block becomes a screen, and the place comes to life as Psyrri's artist community and hip young things enjoy superb drinks and a great atmosphere set against a backdrop of screenings and some funky retro DJ sets. It is the sort of place that the desperately cool in Dalston or downtown Manhattan would love to try and create but just cant. They simply don't have the raw materials of an artisans and artists working side by side that a crumbling city like Athens does. Is the bar a little contrived? Possibly. But what bar isn't. This place was so good that we went there twice in two nights.

Finally you can't seem to Google it, spell it if you have an English keyboard, and therefore find it. So if you want to go I suggest you find the O&B Hotel and take you directions from there. It's all Greek to me - makes sense really.