Kolonaki
Jazz in Jazz.
Jazz, whisky, 1978. A sailor's bar.
A jazz and whisky bar with sailor's bones — opened 1978 in Crete by Kostas Spanos, moved to Kolonaki in 1995, now run by his nephew. Ten thousand vinyls, a working gramophone, classic cocktails, no signatures.
Deinokratous 4, Dexameni. The quieter end of Kolonaki, at the foot of Lycabettus, where the buildings still have brass plaques on the doorbells.
Jazz in Jazz started in 1978 — not here, but in Agia Galini on the south coast of Crete, where Kostas Spanos, a Greek sailor with ten thousand jazz records, opened the bar that suited the music in his head. In 1995 he moved it to Athens intact: the records came on the ferry, the gramophone came on the ferry, the memorabilia came on the ferry. Two hundred of those records still get played on it.
The records came on the ferry. The gramophone came on the ferry. The memorabilia came on the ferry.
The walls are a sailor's life: autographed photos of jazz musicians, tap shoes from a Harlem dancer, harmonicas, concert posters, whisky bottles from islands smaller than Crete. Kostas's nephew Vangelis pours the same way — classic cocktails, no signatures, no foam. The whisky list is what most people come for.
Open every night, eight until three. Reserve on weekends. Sit at the bar for the story; at a table for the records.
1978
Year
€€
Price
