Neon (coffee house)

Das Neon, 2004. The aluminum windows of the building have meanwhile been exchanged for wooden windows suitable for historical monuments.

The Neon is a traditional Athens coffee house on Omonia Square . It was open from 1920 to 2011. The restaurant is currently without a tenant. Although it is called a kafenio , it has little in common with one of these.

history

The coffee house was founded in 1920 in the former restaurant of the existing Hotel Carlton. The café was called "Neon Byzantion" (New Byzantium), but was soon simply called Neon. It soon established itself as a meeting place for the generation of the 1930s and was immortalized as such in two pictures by Giannis Tsarouchis and in photos by Jean-François Bonhomme. In the 1990s it was converted into a fast food restaurant and a branch on Syntagma Square was added. In 2007 it was restored and operated again as a traditional coffee house until 2011.

Coordinates: 37 ° 59 ′ 4.6 ″  N , 23 ° 43 ′ 43.1 ″  E