This small, charming mezedopoleio gets its name, which translates to “Captain Michael,” from Nikos Kazantzakis’s eponymous novel. The tribute to Kazantzakis makes sense: The eminent writer and philosopher was a native of Crete, as is the family that opened this eatery some 50 years ago.
In the 1960s, Kapetan Mixalis was more café than mezedopoleio (the Greek equivalent of a tapas bar), offering coffee, backgammon (tavli in Greek), card games, live music by locals, philosophical discussions and a friendly atmosphere from morning till night. It became a meeting point for Athenian intellectuals, actors and musicians. Famous personalities sat for hours at the sidewalk tables, quaffing wine and a traditional Cretan drink called tsikoudia (a grape-based brandy) and eating cold cuts, spoon sweets and other simple preparations that didn’t require cooking.
In the early ’90s, the family’s younger generation, brothers Michael and Manolis Servilakis, took over the business and turned it into more of a tavern. They kept the interior very much the same, and today, it looks like 
something out of an old black-and-white Greek film, with its wooden tables and chairs, old advertisements and photos, antiques and old-fashioned aluminum wine jugs. There’s a small open kitchen from which enticing aromas issue forth.
From noon to midnight, that kitchen serves up home-style cooking using traditional recipes and seasonal ingredients. Every morning, the Servilakis brothers head to Varvakeios, the largest food market in the city, to procure their raw materials and also support local greengrocers, butchers and fishmongers. Most of the recipes are Cretan, cooked in traditional fashion the way their grandmothers once did. Dishes include politiki, a Constantinople-style salad of chopped cabbage and carrots with garlic, vinegar and olive oil; black-eyed peas with chopped onion and potato salad; split peas with capers; cuttlefish with spinach; fried anchovies, whitebait or sardines; rice with mussels; gigantes beans baked in tomato sauce; and braised pork with mustard, one of the most popular dishes.
Like the best kind of backstreets places, Kapetan Mixalis is built on value as well as simplicity. Prices seem like they haven’t changed much since the place opened; in fact, a quarter-kilo of wine (in Greece wine is often sold by weight, not volume), some fish or other seafood, a meat dish and a salad set us back only about €25. And that’s just one of many reasons for its timeless appeal.
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Published on January 11, 2016
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