Plato's Corner Deli

NOTE: I am back-dating this post to the month and year where it belongs. But in reality I am actually writing it more than five years later, the evening of January 13, 2023. I think I've got most of the details right, however.

Now that I've told you one really unpleasant story about our vacation in Greece, let me tell you a really pleasant one.

The day after Ohi Day, the day after my pocket was picked, we did a lot of things. We wandered around Athens. We went to visit the Piraeus. (Somehow in the last 2500 years it seems that somebody must have torn down the Long Walls, because we didn't see them anywhere.) And we took the bus out to visit Plato's Academy. As two erstwhile scholars, how could we do otherwise? 

Strictly speaking, of course, Plato's Academy was closed many years ago. But we know where it was located, and there have been archaeological digs on the site. Also, the site has given its name to a whole slice of metropolitan Athens, Ακαδημία Πλάτωνος (Akadimia Platonos), a grungy, working-class district northwest of downtown. So that's where we headed. We saw the place marked on a map, but weren't really sure what we would find.

When we first got to the district, it didn't look too great. There was litter and graffiti. (The photograph is one I took.) But soon we figured out that the Ακαδημία Πλάτωνος referenced in the sign here was the city district and not the site of the actual school itself. That was several blocks farther on, and so we started to walk.

And walk. 

It took a while to get there. When we did, we found that the site was enclosed within a metal gate that looked pretty uninviting. But there was an open door, so we walked in ….

… and inside the gate was a park. Yes, there were stone works that had been dug out of the ground. But nothing was off limits, and most of it was trees and lawn. (In fact we saw one person asleep on one of the ruined stone walls.) It was a beautiful spot; and if I were Plato, I would far rather be remembered by a gentle park where working-class children come to play than by the most perfect archaeological reconstruction of my school.

In the center of the park was a visitor center, which had some videos and instructional material. Everything was in both Greek and English. Presumably the tourist presence was not negligible. But it was also obvious that most tourists don't come this far out of town. The visitor's center was close to empty. And by mid-afternoon, they were ready to close.

That was fine, because Marie and I were hungry. We hadn't had lunch, and it was something close to 4:00 in the afternoon. So we wandered back through the park, and then—just across the street—we saw a deli (or something similar) that appeared to be open. It was called Ταβέρνα η γωνία του Πλάτωνα. Roughly translated, that comes to Plato's Corner Deli.

They had tables outside. It was still a glorious afternoon, so we wandered in and tried to ask if we could sit outside. We didn't find anyone who spoke English; but we made ourselves clear with gestures, and so found our seats. Soon a waitress brought us a couple of menus. But—oops! bad luck!—the waitress spoke no English either. However there was a party sitting at the next table over, who seemed to be regulars. She went and spoke to them, and they offered to translate. Working this way, we ordered a very plentiful lunch. (I'm pretty sure this served us for dinner as well.) And the food was wonderful. In general, during our whole trip to Greece, the quality of the food we ate was more or less inversely proportional to the price. This was close to the cheapest meal we had during the whole trip, and it was the tastiest and most delightful. It certainly helped that the waitress was charming and very pretty, though the food would have been great in any event. But the combination meant that the afternoon formed a warm, comfortable memory in the middle of the entire trip.

When we were done, of course, we did everything in reverse: walk and walk and walk until we came to the bus stop, then take the bus back into town to get back to our hotel. But we spent the whole evening in a warm glow from the afternoon.