by Tania Skrapaliori
Athens is no longer just a city with great bars; it’s a city where the bars have broken their boundaries, spilling gloriously into the streets.
Beer and cocktails in plastic cups. Wine glasses and bottles perched precariously on scooters. Throngs of people igniting agoraphobic pangs in passersby, testing the patience of neighbors, yet also breathing life into streets that, just a decade ago, were gasping through the economic crisis.
Some bars never intended to become open-air hubs, but the crowds claimed the sidewalk for them. Others were born for it, designed to erase the line between venue and public space. One thing’s certain: Athens doesn’t just have good bars anymore; it has bars that own the street.
For many Athenians, the phrase “the bars that lure us out into the streets” immediately conjures Asklipiou Street -a kind of Pavlovian response. This uphill stretch, long a borderland between Exarchia and Kolonaki, has reinvented itself across the years. Today, it’s a vibrant crossroads where styles, subcultures, and generations mingle over drinks.
From Exarchia mainstays like Nabokov, beloved by the city’s younger crowd, to genre-defying spots like Sandarosa, where adventurous playlists try to cut through the midnight murmur of the crowd, Asklipiou has become a kind of mini-Mecca for Athenian nightlife. Its transformation began before the pandemic, just as the city was shaking off the dust of austerity.
One of the key players in this transformation is the small but mighty Fálaina. With its signature neon-pink whale glowing above the entrance, it serves up one of the best daiquiris in Athens and exudes effortless musical cool. Its impact is evident in the dense crowd vying for a sliver of sidewalk or a coveted table. On weekends, the spillover is unmistakable. Drinks in hand, groups drift down the street, gathering near the steps of Agios Nikolaos church, just across from Stépa, another standout of the Asklipiou scene. With its relaxed energy, thoughtful drinks, and curated soundtrack, Stépa is emblematic of the street’s new era.
Heading downhill toward Ippokratous Street, the energy thickens. You’ll pass through the Valtetsiou pedestrian zone, where sidewalk tables at pioneering wine bars like Sousourada and Warehouse are in high demand -and where Luxus, a cult favorite, remains a beacon for the city’s loyal night owls.
At the corner of Ippokratous and Valtetsiou, you arrive at what might be the city center’s most iconic open-air bar zone. Lulu Athens may look, at first glance, like a third-wave coffee spot (and by day, it is), but by night it transforms into a laid-back urban haunt with serious club energy. Long before DJ booths appeared in kitchens and gastrotaverns, Lulu was spinning vinyl, setting a tone that others would follow. Now, it hosts some of Athens’ finest DJs, turning this unassuming corner into a magnetic meeting point; plastic cups clinking, music pulsing, the city alive in the street.
As you descend from Exarchia into the historic center, the rhythm of the city shifts, but the streets keep offering new spins on the classic “grab a drink” ritual. In the wine bar category, Wine Is Fine on Vissis Street is already a beloved staple, while Fellos, a recent arrival at the corner of Vassilikis and Kolokotroni, is quickly earning its stripes. Both invite passersby to linger over pit-stop glasses in laid-back, street-side settings, yet the bottles they pour could rival those on the menus of Athens’ most refined restaurants.
Back in the cocktail world, The Bar In Front of the Bar on Petraki Street, tucked behind Ermou, has become something of a pilgrimage spot for visiting drink-lovers. With no indoor seating and no pretense, its open-air concept and consistently excellent drinks have earned it a steady stream of international praise and “best discovery” accolades.
But nightlife in Athens isn’t confined to the center. Pangrati -the neighborhood that helped redraw the city’s after-dark map- has cultivated its own cult following. The longtime favorite Chelsea Bar, perched on Archimidous Street, now finds itself challenged by a new wave of sidewalk revelers who happily forgo a table to join the curbside crowd. The undeniable breakout star? Profitis. Tucked into Prophet Elias Square, this neighborhood spritzeria has smashed attendance records with no music, no theatrics, just perfectly chilled aperitivi and a loyal crowd of regulars.
For something quieter, yet equally street-savvy, head to nearby The Shakers in Varnava Square. With precise, polished cocktails and a relaxed streetwise energy, it channels the exact spirit that once made Alcohol in Agia Paraskevi legendary among a generation of Millennials.
That classic beer-in-hand experience lives on, even outside the city center maze, in places that serve their neighborhoods with sincerity. Paragon in Ilioupoli rivals London and Berlin's urban breweries. Or Beans and Hops in Patissia -a beloved favorite.
Athens, in its eternal contradictions, with its new paradoxes of day and nightlife and the larger conversations around the modern exploitation of hospitality, once again draws its people out to the streets in search of a great evening. And just maybe, some glasses will find themselves half-full.
