Where to drink in Athens, according to a local mixologist

The last cocktail that made me go ‘Ooh’ was a Tomato Solaris at The Clumsies, a cocktail bar near Syntagma Square. It’s made with Scotch whisky, kariki (a blue cheese from the island of Tinos), sun-dried tomato, melon and oregano. For me, it’s both a very Greek drink and a piece of art. It’s fizzy, umami and totally balanced. When I finish a shift, I like to relax with an ice-cold IPA and an Irish whiskey as a chaser.

My favourite places for that are The 7 Jokers Cocktail Bar in Syntagma and Briki in Mavili Square. They’re both high-energy places where I go to talk, laugh, dance and listen to mostly older sounds like rock, swing and funk — the music there isn’t mainstream. Mavili Square is also my favourite spot for nightlife — it’s a place you can go and stay out until sunrise.

If you go to Quinn’s Bar in Ilisia and order a dry or dirty martini, you’ll remember that drink for a long time. It’s everything a dry martini should be: ice-cold, perfectly balanced and incredibly clean in flavour. If you can, get the owner, Ilias, to make it for you — he has meraki (doing something with soul and love), as we say in Greece, and is incredibly thoughtful. It’s a great place to chill, reconnect with classic cocktails and have proper conversations.

If a friend visited me here, I’d want us to have an old Athens night together. I’d take them to Metaxourgeio, a traditional, working-class neighbourhood, and specifically to a place called Metaxou. It’s a classic koutouki (a low-key, back-alley taverna) with a timeless atmosphere. Every night it has live rebetiko, an early 20th-century folk music, and there’s a strong possibility you’ll meet the men and women who have played that music their whole lives. With a little bit of encouragement, they might sing a song or two for you. We’d have a beer or tsipouro (Greek distilled spirit) and order a Greek salad, tzatziki, fried potatoes, saganaki (fried cheese), some ribs and tirokafteri (a spicy dip) for the table.

For me, Greek food is incredibly diverse, and everyone connects with it differently. Traditional dishes such as dolmadakia (stuffed vine leaves), gemista (stuffed vegetables), dakos (Cretan salad) and white tarama (cod roe paste) are absolute must-tries. You’ll find them in most mezedopoleia (meze restaurants) and they really capture the essence of our cuisine. Oikonomou, a taverna in the Petralona neighbourhood, is perfect for experiencing this type of honest, soulful cooking.

One of my favourite places to celebrate a special occasion is Epta Martyres in Neos Kosmos. The space is a blend of wine bar, French bistro and traditional Greek mezedopoleio. I love the concept: you order wine and mezze, and the kitchen team decides what dishes comes to your table, inspired by the traditional mezze culture of Volos, a coastal city in Thessaly.

(Read our guide to the city: How to spend the perfect day in Athens)