Tsinari in Ano Poli

One of the most beautiful neighborhoods of Ano Poli in Thessaloniki, Greece is Plane tree. It owes its name to the huge plane tree (in Turkish chinar means plane tree) that shaded one of the old Turkish fountains that were there.

There, thirty meters from the fountain, was from the end of the 19th century and more specifically in 1885 a brown with the homonymous name, owned by a Turk by name Kiosse. According to tradition, Turks and Greeks frequented and sucked coffee with their hookahs, there was even a Turkish barber who Ishmael which had its headquarters in a corner of the cafe and cut as many patrons as they wished. After the uprooting of Smyrna, the settlement of the Greek refugees in Ano Poli and the corresponding departure of the Turkish populations, the shop passed into the hands of the Greeks and was transformed into cafe-ouzo where ouzo was served with Asia Minor delicacies.

Since then the "Tsinari" remained unchanged. Time did not age the old ouzo cafe, as with the same characteristic blue windows on the two walls, the tiles, the traditional black and white tiles on the floor, the blue wooden ceiling, the wood stove for the cold and the balcony covered with a The heat has been welcomed by the faithful of ouzo for about a century.

The ouzo cafe in the early 1990s was converted by Papadopoulou family in an ouzo tavern. Asia Minor ouzo appetizers, Smyrna soutzoukaki, handmade dolmadas, tzigerosarmades, open grilled sardines, anchovy saganaki, bouyurdi with authentic feta and tomato and from sweets, quince roasted, si halvatas is traditional.

The truth is many tributes to Greek and foreign channels and publications, made it famous "Tsinari" and brought good people and more customers, but the Mrs. Tania and her two children, o Lefteris and Manto, do everything they can to maintain the popularity and authenticity of one of the few remaining historical sites of Thessaloniki, oasis sites, of sacred everyday life.