Almopos
September 25th, 2007, 05:29 PM
Newspaper article from Australian newspaper The Age
Stick a cork in the retsina, Athens has gone upmarket
The fifth century BC is known as the Golden Age of Athens, when the Parthenon was built and arts, science and democracy flourished. However, it's not too fanciful to say that Athens is going through another Golden Age, brought on by the 2004 Olympics.
As well as hotels that would grace Paris or New York, there are several Michelin-starred restaurants, breathtaking new museums, cutting-edge arts centres and groups of people who are fighting back against pollution. Whole areas of the city have been pedestrianised and quarters such as Psyrri and Gazi are now where hip young Greeks hang out, leaving the tourists to poke around in the Plaka.
Even arriving in Athens put me in the mood for a good time. It used to be that after making your way through the old airport you had to lug your bag on to a hot bus or risk the ranks of taxi drivers. You know what they say, 90 per cent of Greek people are friendly and honest, and the rest went to Athens and became taxi drivers.
Arriving 2007-style is a joy. From the clean and spacious air terminal you walk to the bright new metro station, board the modern and efficient German-designed train and 40 minutes later you emerge in Omonia Square, or Syntagma, or Monastiraki, or even in the pedestrian zone at the foot of the Acropolis.
To settle into Athens I always used to find one of my favourite cheap tavernas, order an ouzo or a bottle of retsina and get stuck into some fried squid. This time we arrive a little early to check in to the hotel, so the receptionist suggests we have a welcoming drink in the bar and they'll call me when the room's ready. I need a drink to recover from my first sight of the reception at the Baby Grand Hotel - two white Mini Coopers are parked in the lobby, customised to work as desks. They're wonderful and fun but Greek hotels just aren't like this.
Nor are Greek bars like the Moet & Chandon Bar at the Baby Grand. It is, I learn later, the first champagne bar in Athens. We sink into the comfy white recliners and order a glass of champagne each and a selection of finger food. Retsina is not an option.
When the room's ready it's time for another surprise. We're sharing with Spider-Man. The Baby Grand has a number "graffiti rooms" created by young Greek artists who are represented by a nearby gallery. We get Spider-Man. The room is red, black, white and surprisingly relaxing. In one corner is a maxi-bar with every drink and nibble you could imagine and also a few personal items you don't usually find in hotel rooms. I shall say no more than that.
[......]
I had wanted to eat at one of Athens's three Michelin-starred restaurants, just to see what kind of Greek cooking manages to impress the French, but they're all full, so I settle for the next best thing - an up-and-coming chef who trains with gourmet superstar Alain Ducasse. Ducasse was the first chef to earn the maximum three Michelin stars at two restaurants. Chef Athanasios Tzanetos of the newly reopened Tudor Hall restaurant trains with the Ducasse team four times a year, which shows the seriousness with which modern Greek restaurants treat their menus.
With Tudor Hall's setting you could serve kebab and chips and diners would still be happy. It's on the seventh floor of the King George Palace Hotel on Syntagma Square, and if you can get a table on the terrace you have superb views over the square and across to the floodlit Parthenon. No matter how many times I come to Athens I never tire of seeing that beautiful building standing on the Acropolis hill where the city first grew up. About 2500 years have passed since men laboured to create that building, reminding you of the layers of history that make up modern Athens.
Dragging my eyes away from history I check out the menu. Lobster soup; sea bass with spinach, calamari and saffron; spit-roasted duck with braised fennel in saffron and orange. We coast through the menu, letting the female sommelier (another surprise for Athens) suggest some Greek wines. If the Tudor Hall is Athens' next Michelin-starred restaurant, then remember - you read it here first. I feel like I've died and gone to dine with the gods on Mount Olympus.
Back down to earth the next day, the heat on the street makes me feel as if I'm a spit-roasted duck myself, so we check out some cool museums. The fabulous Benaki Museum of Islamic Art is cool in more ways than one. It's a new offshoot of the bigger Benaki Museum near Syntagma Square. The Islamic museum is in Psyrri, one of the regenerated areas in Athens, where old workshops have been replaced by ouzeries and junk shops by galleries.
Emmanuel Benakis was a wealthy Greek cotton merchant and art collector who lived in the late 19th century and who definitely had a good eye for an exquisite object. He amassed so many beautiful items that they can't all be displayed in even the four floors of the Benaki Museum, so the objects from the Islamic world have been given their own new home. And what objects they are. Here another four floors display Egyptian tombstones, bright turquoise ceramics from ninth-century Iraq, an amazing red velvet saddle-cover, ornamented with decorative tulips, carnations and pomegranates, made in Bursa, north-western Turkey, in the late 16th century. There are prayer carpets, astronomical instruments, jewel-encrusted rifles and even an entire reception room from a Cairo mansion.
[....]
The Athens metamorphosis didn't stop with the 2004 Olympics. That was just the beginning. There's still the stunning new Acropolis Museum to come, due to open in 2008, if the archaeologists and the architects have stopped arguing by then. No doubt there will be more Greek boutique hotels, more Michelin-honoured restaurants and the sleek metro network will extend further. But you can bet on one thing: the Parthenon will still be sitting up there above the city, looking down on it all.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/greece/an-ancient-city-reborn/2007/09/20/1189881667109.html
Stick a cork in the retsina, Athens has gone upmarket
The fifth century BC is known as the Golden Age of Athens, when the Parthenon was built and arts, science and democracy flourished. However, it's not too fanciful to say that Athens is going through another Golden Age, brought on by the 2004 Olympics.
As well as hotels that would grace Paris or New York, there are several Michelin-starred restaurants, breathtaking new museums, cutting-edge arts centres and groups of people who are fighting back against pollution. Whole areas of the city have been pedestrianised and quarters such as Psyrri and Gazi are now where hip young Greeks hang out, leaving the tourists to poke around in the Plaka.
Even arriving in Athens put me in the mood for a good time. It used to be that after making your way through the old airport you had to lug your bag on to a hot bus or risk the ranks of taxi drivers. You know what they say, 90 per cent of Greek people are friendly and honest, and the rest went to Athens and became taxi drivers.
Arriving 2007-style is a joy. From the clean and spacious air terminal you walk to the bright new metro station, board the modern and efficient German-designed train and 40 minutes later you emerge in Omonia Square, or Syntagma, or Monastiraki, or even in the pedestrian zone at the foot of the Acropolis.
To settle into Athens I always used to find one of my favourite cheap tavernas, order an ouzo or a bottle of retsina and get stuck into some fried squid. This time we arrive a little early to check in to the hotel, so the receptionist suggests we have a welcoming drink in the bar and they'll call me when the room's ready. I need a drink to recover from my first sight of the reception at the Baby Grand Hotel - two white Mini Coopers are parked in the lobby, customised to work as desks. They're wonderful and fun but Greek hotels just aren't like this.
Nor are Greek bars like the Moet & Chandon Bar at the Baby Grand. It is, I learn later, the first champagne bar in Athens. We sink into the comfy white recliners and order a glass of champagne each and a selection of finger food. Retsina is not an option.
When the room's ready it's time for another surprise. We're sharing with Spider-Man. The Baby Grand has a number "graffiti rooms" created by young Greek artists who are represented by a nearby gallery. We get Spider-Man. The room is red, black, white and surprisingly relaxing. In one corner is a maxi-bar with every drink and nibble you could imagine and also a few personal items you don't usually find in hotel rooms. I shall say no more than that.
[......]
I had wanted to eat at one of Athens's three Michelin-starred restaurants, just to see what kind of Greek cooking manages to impress the French, but they're all full, so I settle for the next best thing - an up-and-coming chef who trains with gourmet superstar Alain Ducasse. Ducasse was the first chef to earn the maximum three Michelin stars at two restaurants. Chef Athanasios Tzanetos of the newly reopened Tudor Hall restaurant trains with the Ducasse team four times a year, which shows the seriousness with which modern Greek restaurants treat their menus.
With Tudor Hall's setting you could serve kebab and chips and diners would still be happy. It's on the seventh floor of the King George Palace Hotel on Syntagma Square, and if you can get a table on the terrace you have superb views over the square and across to the floodlit Parthenon. No matter how many times I come to Athens I never tire of seeing that beautiful building standing on the Acropolis hill where the city first grew up. About 2500 years have passed since men laboured to create that building, reminding you of the layers of history that make up modern Athens.
Dragging my eyes away from history I check out the menu. Lobster soup; sea bass with spinach, calamari and saffron; spit-roasted duck with braised fennel in saffron and orange. We coast through the menu, letting the female sommelier (another surprise for Athens) suggest some Greek wines. If the Tudor Hall is Athens' next Michelin-starred restaurant, then remember - you read it here first. I feel like I've died and gone to dine with the gods on Mount Olympus.
Back down to earth the next day, the heat on the street makes me feel as if I'm a spit-roasted duck myself, so we check out some cool museums. The fabulous Benaki Museum of Islamic Art is cool in more ways than one. It's a new offshoot of the bigger Benaki Museum near Syntagma Square. The Islamic museum is in Psyrri, one of the regenerated areas in Athens, where old workshops have been replaced by ouzeries and junk shops by galleries.
Emmanuel Benakis was a wealthy Greek cotton merchant and art collector who lived in the late 19th century and who definitely had a good eye for an exquisite object. He amassed so many beautiful items that they can't all be displayed in even the four floors of the Benaki Museum, so the objects from the Islamic world have been given their own new home. And what objects they are. Here another four floors display Egyptian tombstones, bright turquoise ceramics from ninth-century Iraq, an amazing red velvet saddle-cover, ornamented with decorative tulips, carnations and pomegranates, made in Bursa, north-western Turkey, in the late 16th century. There are prayer carpets, astronomical instruments, jewel-encrusted rifles and even an entire reception room from a Cairo mansion.
[....]
The Athens metamorphosis didn't stop with the 2004 Olympics. That was just the beginning. There's still the stunning new Acropolis Museum to come, due to open in 2008, if the archaeologists and the architects have stopped arguing by then. No doubt there will be more Greek boutique hotels, more Michelin-honoured restaurants and the sleek metro network will extend further. But you can bet on one thing: the Parthenon will still be sitting up there above the city, looking down on it all.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/greece/an-ancient-city-reborn/2007/09/20/1189881667109.html