Tsipouro and meze
Not a drink but a way to spend an afternoon: small plates that keep coming, and company in no hurry.
Thessaloniki's most characteristic "dish" isn't a dish at all. It's a ritual, and anyone unfamiliar with it mistakes it for going out for a drink.
What tsipouro is
A spirit distilled from pomace, what's left of the grapes after winemaking. It's produced across Northern Greece and served ice-cold, in small bottles or carafes. It comes with aniseed and without: the choice is a matter of school, and locals have opinions.
It is never drunk on its own. Tsipouro requires meze.
How the table works
You don't order a main course. You order small plates, in waves, and keep going as long as the conversation lasts. Typically passing across the table:
- Seafood: fried mussels, octopus, marinated anchovy, sardine.
- Savoury: baked feta, spicy cheese dip, peppers, stuffed vine leaves.
- Hot plates: sausage, fried potatoes, saganaki.
The pace is deliberately slow. A tsipouro table can comfortably last three hours, and that isn't considered unusual in the slightest.
Where it happens
In ouzeri and mezedopoleia. A category of place distinct from a restaurant. Historically they cluster around the markets and in Ladadika, the quarter named after the old olive-oil warehouses and today one of the centres of going out.
The unwritten rule
The table is shared. There is no "my plate", everything goes in the middle and everyone picks from everywhere. The bill is usually split. Ordering only for yourself is considered odd.
Hours
Tsipouro has two zones: midday, especially at weekends, and evening from 9 onwards. The midday tsipouro is an institution in Thessaloniki and frequently ends up replacing dinner as well.