So, if you want to drink a coffee or to taste traditional Asian Minor appetizers and hear old stories about the Asian Minor disaster, you should visit the historical Lazaros’ coffee shop or “Odemision”, the oldest eatery of the city. Placed at the junction of Venizelos and Dardanellion street in the very heart of Eleusina, since 1924, “Odemisio” is an ideal example of a family business that thrived into the years keeping their tradition alive! It remains intact in time, offering to locals and foreign visitors plethora of social and cultural elements to get familiar with their hospitality.
The story started when the grandfathers of the today’s owner, forced to abandon their home. Odemisio was a Greek town at Asian Minor that was conquered by Turkish in 1922. After the disaster they settled in Eleusina to start their lives from scratch. Through all these years, Lazaros’ family kept customs and habits from Odemisio, especially as far as gastronomy is concerned! Local delicacies such as sausages, soutzouki and pastourma are available to taste! So, you could get iniatived into the Asian Minor gastronomy by taste it!
Odemisio, like other old coffee shops in Greece, was a meeting point mainly for men. They used to drink their coffee or local drinks like tsipoyro or wine combined with traditional “meze”. Generally, the greek coffee shop institution means a place that people discuss about their problems, exchange ideas, read newspapers, celebrate a celebration, and they sometimes play games as tavli and cards. Τhe owners of “Odemisio” remember that the main issue of discussions did the customers was about to return back to their homeland. So, the place is a chain between the past and the future…
