Kafenio
Kafenio ( Greek Καφενείο or high-level language Καφενεῖον kafenion ; plural kafenia ) is the name for the traditional Greek coffee house . As a rule, the kafenia are family businesses.
Location and layout
The bars are mostly on the main square or the main street of a town. The decor is very minimalist, it is limited to the furniture, namely the bast-covered Greek wooden chairs and the well-known round tin tables, sometimes also rectangular wooden tables; the walls are often whitewashed. A few photos, devotional objects from local sports clubs, a calendar and a clock hang on the walls. Decorated and overloaded restaurants are rare.
The locals are usually not familiar with the names of the pubs, they name the pubs after the host. As a rule, neutral terms are used, such as after the location "O Platanos" (The plane tree) "I kabana" (The bell, for example after a bell tower). The name "Kafenio I Orea Ellas" (roughly: coffee house "To beautiful Greece") corresponds to the German term Stammtischgeschwätz .
offer
Usually offered drinks Greek coffee ( Greek Ελληνικός καφές Ellinikos Kafes ), which now became a cult frappe , beer , retsina , ouzo or tsipouro . Only simple mezedes are offered as dishes , without any special preparation from the store, i.e. as they are available in stores. In addition, according to the statutory provisions , a kafenio may also offer fried and boiled sausage , cheese and squid . An extended kitchen is no longer a kafenio , but an ouzeri .
In the country, the kafenio is sometimes used for local supplies and also offers a supply of food such as bread, flour, milk; or regional specialties for travelers such as cheese, legumes, sausages, honey, olive oil and wine. It replaces the non-existent periptero .
meaning
Kafenia serve (similar to a pub in Central Europe) in villages and urban districts as social centers where people can meet for a conversation, a game of cards or a game of tavl ( backgammon ) after work . Their central role is evident from the fact that in the last decades of the 20th century they were mostly the only telephone location in the village or district from which those called were often called out by megaphone .
Originally, the kafenio was reserved for men, women similarly preferred visiting pastry shops or having coffee with friends in the afternoon. Even today, mostly only the older male population of one place stays in the Kafenio during the day. Younger circles of friends avoid the kafenio in favor of the cafeteria , which corresponds to a cafe-bar, this is also called kafenia of the "new generation". The gender segregation no longer exists here, and women can now also be found in traditional kafenio. For travelers, however, this rule has always been ignored.
A recent development is the use of the traditional name “Kafenio” as a retro term, but generally for coffee establishments, which can also be high-priced, bar-like restaurants.
The kafenio in the big city
In large cities and especially in their inner cities, the social function of the kafenio is only given to a limited extent. Here the term simply stands for coffee house . In Athens, “Flokas” was the artist's café, “Zonar's” was the literary café and Neon was more of an establishment café.
literature
- Andreas Deffner: The coffee oracle from Hellas . Re Di Roma Publishing House, 2010.
Individual evidence
- ↑ John George Péristiany: Contributions to Mediterranean sociology . Mediterranean Sociological Conference, Athens, July 1963. La Haye, 1968, p. 110.
- ↑ JJF Schroots, European Commission. Directorate-General XII, Science, Research, and Development: Aging in Europe . P. 69.