Aristokratikon

Panagiotis Karras came to Athens from Vasiliko Pogoniou, in Epirus, and in 1928 opened his own shop at Voukourestiou 2, next to the Zacharatos cafe. Regional custom sent Epirot men into bread; he went into sugar instead, and during the first decade narrowed the work to chocolate specifically. The business has stayed in the family for four generations — his great-grandson runs it now — and the workshop still operates at the foot of Lycabettus. The counter is hand-made throughout: chocolates, marzipan, candied fruit and loukoumia. By the house's own account its customers included Jackie Kennedy, who bought vanilla and rose loukoumia, Grace Kelly, who bought caramelised pistachios, and Maria Callas. Why the name stops at the city limits is legible in a near-exact comparison. Ion, the Greek chocolate company founded two years later in 1930, industrialised: it now turns over well above 100 million euros and sits among the fifty largest companies in Greece, its Amygdalou bar a national staple. Aristokratikon took the other road and never left it, remaining a counter with a workshop behind it, selling by weight to people who come in. Scale was available in the same market at the same moment. It was not taken.