The combination coffee shop-general store has become a relic of a bygone era, similarly to old transistor radios or the laterna. There was a time though in living memory where in rural areas and in the neighborhoods of larger towns, the general store that sold groceries and served coffee or food was the heart of the community.
Every village in Greece had such an establishment. It was here where the men would spend time, drinking coffee or tsipouro and discussing community issues or politics, while the women would visit to buy soap, rice, canned goods and other staples.
Time passed however, and Greece’s rural areas became modernized. Small supermarkets opened, even in villages, while traditional coffee shops continued to offer a place for men to pass the time.
Yet, despite these rapid changes, there is one last general store-coffee shop that is still standing, in the village of Ano Palaiokarya of Trikala. According to the trikalavoice.gr news portal, it is owned by 95-year-old Stefanos Gogos, who does not remember when he first began working at the store, which is located on an old road that once connected the regions of Thessaly and Epirus.
Mr. Stefanos is still there, hospitable as ever, ready to serve the few loyal customers or the odd traveler who passes by. The shelves in his shop are filled with food (cans, biscuits, spirits, soft drinks, etc.) and household items. The store once covered the needs of all the inhabitants of the mountain pass, most of whom now have moved away.
Mr. Stefanos continues to serve coffee during the day, while in the evenings his small group of regular customers are served whiskey or tsipouro, with some potato chips or nuts to accompany their beverage.
“He has an open and hospitable heart that in all of his life has rolled in the warm nest of his shop,” says historian Vasilis Panagos, who frequently visits the store. “Now he drags his feet, heavy from the years. But his mind is like a massive book full of memories.”
Mr. Stefanos recounted some of these memories to Panagos, about his long life, the events that marked the village, about the store and its patrons, and about the old inn that his father used to operate since 1908, “a wonderful refuge for the traveler who needed to rest.”
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