12 taverns and other gastronomic hangouts in Hydra

12 taverns and other gastronomic hangouts in Hydra
August

12 taverns and other gastronomic hangouts in Hydra

Twelve gastronomic hangouts in Hydra, the island that produces nothing - let the opposite coast of Argolida be good, and the Saronic Gulf -, which is why the inhabitants became captains, spongers and sailors 4 centuries ago and produced wealth that invested it in their mansions and homes .

Ouzo Plomariou
Ouzo Plomari

And when taken from war, occupation, poverty and desolation, the historical island of Hydra began timidly from the early 1950s to take over with the films "The girl in black" with Elli Lampeti by Kakogiannis (1956), "The child with the dolphin" with Sophia Loren (1957), and "Phaedra" with Melina Mercouri and Anthony Perkins (1962) and famous European artists settle, the typical taverns with local delicacies and the fun of Hydra revived life on the island. We present 12 gastronomic hangouts in Hydra of all categories - from popular taverns to gourmet - to our knowledge that another 10 could be on the list. But there is next year too!

The recording is done in terms of walk. First walk in the port starting from the Historical Archive to the Cave and then the same course but from the hinterland.

 

 

Isalos

Cafe Isalos - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

Giannis Rappas and his wife Ifigenia Bakratsa opened on the beach of Hydra in 2000 in cafe-restaurant Isalos, one of the first shops you encounter getting off the ship as soon as you arrive in Hydra. Isalos first in line but also first in quality in what it offers - salads, appetizers, sandwiches, delicacies - remains open all year round, something very important for the permanent residents, who see their beautiful island flooded with people on summer or three days, but in winter they have to manage the loneliness of another Hydra. And Isalos gives them unique flavors of sought-after Greek products and provides them with a reassuring and comforting company.

 

The Nice Hydra

gourmet restaurant "I Oraia Hydra"

Antigoni Vamvaka dreamy but also an effective Piraeus businesswoman and friend of Hydra for 35 years, opened the gourmet restaurant "The Beautiful Hydra", (in the place of old Psaropoula, where from 1911 the Tiliakos family maintained a tavern and since 1993 a restaurant). Whether you want to sit at the waterfront tables, to feel its movement and rhythm, or if you are lucky enough to book one of the three privileged tables on its balcony overlooking the harbor, you will know that you will eat special gourmet flavors from a restaurant that offers great tasty surprises to its guests.

 

The pirate

Pirate - The Pirate Bar - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

The legendary Pirate of Hydra is a store that has left a history of 40 years. It is the bar on the right side of the beach, next to the statue of Koundouriotis, who since its first construction, has seen everyone pass by his tables: shipowners, children of business families, bon viveurs, models, boats and sailors, to young people, groups of boys and girls who loved the good music and the relaxed, but also dancing to the point of exhaustion. Nowadays Takis Bouchlas and his wife Wendy continue fearlessly with their two children, Zara and Zeus, and turned the Pirate into an all-day bar with his breakfast, his coffee, a light lunch and his dinner in the evening. his drink and of course his cocktail.

 

Hydra Nautical Club

Hydra Nautical Club - Omilos Restaurant - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

Just outside the port of Hydra, going to Spilia, is the famous Hydra Nautical Club, which housed the legendary Bunny, reference point and part of the myth that accompanies the island. On the verandas of the legendary night club of Babi More (a very intelligent businessman who in 1958 came to Hydra, went crazy with her and opened the first Bunny in a boat depot) have walked Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor the Beatles, the Rolling St Jackie Kennedy, Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis. Costas Achilas and his partner Lisa Bartsiokas took over the shop abandoned for 10 years and in the 20th they created a gourmet restaurant and bar, a place of high aesthetics and good taste, which respects the history of the club, but at the same time continues the tradition of warm cosmopolitan .

Ouzo Plomariou
 
Ouzo Plomari

 

Sunset Restaurant

Sunset Restaurant - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

In Hydra, history is present everywhere. One such point is in Kanonia, where the Sunset restaurant, a few meters below the mansion of Pavlos Kountouriotis, which dominates the west of the port of Hydra. There in Spilia at the beginning of the 20th century, Admiral Koundouriotis together with the most important prime minister of Greece, Eleftherios Venizelos, crossed the sea and dreamed of a Greater Greece. A few meters further on, Antonis Rabias takes over a bar in 1993 and creates a restaurant with Greek cuisine. and several years later, he creates the gourmet restaurant Sunset, which is awarded every year as one of the restaurants with the best view in the world!

 

Bratsera Hotel

Bratsera Hotel - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

Η Bracelet was created by Christina Nevrou, turning the old sponge factory of her family (Vervenioti) into a hotel, in the mid-1990s. Her architect and ally in this laborious but also creative work was her close friend Dimitris Papacharalambous, in whom Christina left the hotel when she passed away prematurely, in September 2016. There is little to be said about the aesthetics of Bracera, since in 1996 the EUROPA NOSTRA Award was given for the special work of its renovation. Bratsera cuisine has an extremely tempting menu, with dishes of Greek "teased" traditional cuisine and others with Mediterranean references served for 8 months a year, to hotel guests or not, to the beautiful swimming pool in summer, or if it is cold, in the warm atmosphere of the restaurant.

 

 

Caprice Restaurant

Caprice Restaurant-Bar - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

In a beautiful cobbled path, a few meters behind the port of Hydra, is located since 1994 the Caprice Restaurant-Bar, where Vassilis Kokkos turned his grandfather's sponge warehouse into a restaurant-reference point for gourmets, Greeks and foreigners, who visit the island. Caprice cuisine combines genuine Italian recipes slightly "teased" with traditional products from all over Greece. Its constant value is the pizza, with handmade thin dough (like the Italian one) and seasonal ingredients, but also the wide variety of fresh pasta. The dishes with aquatic seafood, squid, sea urchin, lobster and delicious filleted fish are extremely inspiring. The cuttlefish risotto is excellent, as is the linguine with fresh sea urchin. My favorite hangout in Hydra.

 

Hidden Port

The Hidden Port (Captain Andreas) - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

Hidden - literally - in a small alley, about two hundred meters behind the beach of Hydra, is the Hidden Port a tavern that should definitely be explored by anyone who wants to be called "wanted" when leaving Hydra! The Hidden Port is housed in a house with a traditional aqueduct, with a lemon tree in the middle standing tufted despite being 85 years old and a harvested arbor with bunches of grapes hanging over it, confusing foreign tourists who think they are fake decor! Here was the house of Barba Dimas, who had 4 children. One of them, Andreas, was a sailor and in 1986, after retiring, he opened this shop and gave it the name he wanted: Hidden Port. In 1992, Dimitris Voulgaris, son of Captain Andreas and grandson of Barba Dimas, took it and developed it. Delicious fresh fish, grilled of the hour, good snacks, all made with taste, cooked with authentic homemade recipes, local squid - delicious -, combined with the warm and unpretentious friendly service, make it an undoubted choice of enjoyment.

 

Macaroons Tsagaris

Macaroons Tsagaris

Taken by war, occupation, poverty and desolation, the historic island of Hydra has been timidly gaining ground since the early 1950s. One of the few cafes in the port, where the first visitors drank their coffee, was the majestic cafe-confectionery "ta Kyvelia" of Dimitrios Tsagaris, which was located where the Postal Savings Bank is housed today. Its founder since 1930 is Aristides Tsagaris who offered and traded for the first time hydric macaroons that until that time were made only in homes for self-consumption in celebrations and happy events. In 1957 it is taken over by Dimitris Tsagaris and his wife Anna and are the ones who will sweeten for the next 60 years all the Greeks and foreign friends of the island. Kyra-Anna, despite her age, continues the art of macaroon to this day and fortunately passed it on to her child and grandchild.

 

Dried Olive

Xeri Elia Tavern - Douskos - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

Η Dried Olive is a grocery tavern of the last century, with a trademark of a large olive tree in the center of its square (which dried giving its name to the store), which was to become one of the most famous taverns of Hydra and beyond. With 180 years of history, Xeri Elia, a reference point for the people of Hydra and for the most loyal foreign friends of Hydra, is the tavern with cooked traditional food, Hydra squid, fish (in all forms and flavors), hunting (partridges, quail , snipes), cooked and grilled meat, but also where there are parties that leave a season! Leonard Cohen writes a song for the tavern and comes here with his friends to sing with his guitar, the people of Hydra catch the song with chants. The tables in the square of Xeri Elia, placed under the shade that offer a huge wisteria, a pine and two mulberries, create an idyllic environment, either at noon or in the evening, to enjoy the specialties of Duskos.

 

Lulus Tavern

Lulus Tavern (Kalamara Bros.) - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

On the main road of Hydra that goes to Kala Pigadia, (the people of Hydra used to call it "drum alley", now it is Admiral Andrea Miaouli Street) on your right hand you will see a tavern with two names on its sign. “Lulus Tavern” and "Kalamara Bros". It is one of the oldest taverns on the island with its own history. The Lulus tavern of Kalamara, which operates from noon to evening, is a typical tavern with traditional Greek cuisine that offers all the classic Greek dishes: from oily, okra, beans, artichokes, briam, eggplant imam. From the cooked ones, the stuffed ones stand out, the moussaka, the pastitsio, braised veal and lemonade, baked lamb. In the grill of Kalamaras are cooked meats, steaks, skewers, burgers and of course fish of all categories, the red mullets of the area, of course hydrangea squid.

 

Four Seasons Restaurant

Four Seasons Hydra - Hydra, Plakes - Greek Gastronomy Guide

An old mansion of a sponge merchant from 1890 at some point (1950) was donated to the monastery of Agia Eupraxia. The Rambia family was vacationing there, and Antonis Rambias, the current businessman of Four Seasons Hydra Luxury Suites & Restaurant, spent the unforgettable summers of his youth there. In 2008 the Four Seasons Hydra Luxury Suites & Restaurant and very quickly it becomes sought after. Of course, Mrs. Tasia Ramia will give her place in the kitchen. Whether in the mornings or at meals, in the covered courtyard located on the shore, one can try Greek flavors, such as fresh cream cheese with honey, strapatsada, taco with nut with anise and of course the spinach pie of Mrs. Tasia for breakfast and wonderful salads, homemade appetizers and fresh fish caught by the fishing boats of Hydra. Five minutes by boat from the beautiful and relatively busy Hydra, you will find in Plakes a small paradise with history.

 

Jasmine

Jasmine, the tavern of George Saitis - Hydra - Greek Gastronomy Guide

On the outskirts of the cosmopolitan and touristy Hydra, on the main road that leads to the edge of the settlement, in the area of ​​the stadium, at the height of a huge pine cone, in a quiet neighborhood, George Saitis, an experienced Hydra cook and the most noble Matina in service, created in 2018 the Jasmine which offers in a popular and unpretentious atmosphere, meats that are hard to forget. Within two years, George became known for his meat and his unique cooking and the whole island, Greeks, foreign residents and visitors have something to say about his ribs and steaks.

 

PLACE & HISTORY - TRADITIONAL KITCHEN

TAVERNS - RESTAURANTS - CAFES

PRODUCERS - WINERY

ACCOMMODATION - SHOPPING - FESTIVALS - SIGHTS

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