At the table Very early or very late

Patsas

The soup that keeps shops open when everything else has closed.

Patsas is the food eaten at hours when nobody eats, and in Thessaloniki it has its own shops, open when everything else has closed.

What it is

A soup of tripe — beef stomach and trotter — simmered for hours into a thick, gelatinous broth. It is served scalding, and at the table you add your own garlic vinegar and boukovo, the red chilli flake locals consider essential.

It is not a dish for everyone, and it does not pretend to be.

An institution, not a curiosity

In Thessaloniki patsas has a depth it does not have elsewhere in Greece. A dossier for its inscription on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list is under way, supported by historical evidence going back to the early twentieth century.

The oldest and best-known patsas shop in the city was that of Lefteris Vafeiadis, a refugee from Constantinople — generations of cooks came out of it. Other historic shops worked around it, on Egnatia and on Konstantinoupoleos.

Why here

The tradition comes from Ottoman cooking and was reinforced by the refugees of 1922. The patsas shops always worked around the markets, where labourers started before dawn — which is why they survived as all-night places rather than as restaurants.

Patsas is also credited with restorative properties, something the UNESCO dossier records: hot broth, gelatine and protein, for people working in the cold.

When it is eaten

Two crowds, at the two ends of the night:

Early morning, before work. This is the original hour.
Very late, after a night out. Patsas has a reputation as the thing that settles you after drinking, and it has held for generations.

How to order it

You will be asked whether you want it with tripe or broth only, and coarsely or finely chopped. If it is your first time, ask for a little tripe and more broth. Add the garlic vinegar gradually — taste first, because it changes the dish completely.

Where

In the patsatzidika around Kapani and Vlali, and in a few historic places in the centre that have not changed in decades. Ask about hours: several open at midnight and close at noon.

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