Mini Size  Chef Argyro Barbarigou

In a Mediterranean country like Greece, with its many islands and lovely resorts, summer draws its spoiled city residents to cooler places by the sea. For those locals and visitors who choose to remain in Athens, there are hidden sanctuaries, where one can enjoy a different ambiance of summer. If you walk through central Athenian neighborhoods, look closely for these culinary retreats, hidden under tall trees in yards or simply occupying shadowy pedestrian walks. Or look up to the tops of various city buildings to see amazing tarazzes (roofs) featuring stunning views. These metropolitan summer gardens with their colorful taverna chairs and tables have real atmosphere, and you will actually be able to catch a cool breeze; more importantly, you will taste Greek summer in the form of light fare and assorted aperitif. There is definitely something about summer in the city. I dished with the chefs of three modern Greek urban tavernas asking for their definition of Greek summer food and how that translates to their menu.


In the central Athens neighborhood Rouf, known either as a disheveled industrial district or as the rising new home to galleries and intellectuals, there are certain corners where one can still grasp the beauty and pureness of a neat urban neighborhood as it was once understood. There, one will find clean, modest houses and quiet peaceful streets. Railroad tracks split the main street into two equal slices. On the quieter side of the tracks, just a few feet from the passing trains, there is an elevated white wooden platform hosting the summer balcony of the neo-Greek taverna, Mini Size.

The main building, a former yard now enclosed with a glass top, is filled with white tables and chairs that spill over to the pedestrian walk like white waves.
The place and the menu are mini in size, but everything else is BIG!

Mini Size’s Chef, Thanasis Siozopoulos, likes to experiment with traditional Greek cuisine. He confides, with a smile, that he spends so much time in the kitchen,
that he actually has to create his own virtual culinary summer. For Thanasis, the epitome of Greek summer food is anything that exudes the aroma of the Aegean Sea, as well as seasonal vegetables that grow in the sunny Greek soil. He mentions a series of his favorite meze: steamed oysters,sautéed shrimp with fennel, grape leaves wrapped around sardines and figs and aubergines with grilled haloumi, a semi-soft cheese from Cyprus.

And then of course, there is his vegetable tower built with aubergines, peppers and zucchini topped with formaela cheese, and cold yoghurt and mint. Formaela is actually a very interesting PDO-certified cheese made of sheep’s or goats’ milk or a mixture of them. It is a delicacy from the mountainous region Arachova and is ideal for frying.