Kalarites is a village located on the Tzoumerka mountain in north-western Greece, which during the winter months seems to be forgotten by everyone. There, in the heart of the village, is a small traditional coffee shop that dates back 174 years.
Its owner today is Napoleon Zaglis who, in 1995, decided one night to quit his job at a multinational corporation, leave Athens and return to his ancestral village to follow the family trade.
“Everyone at my work place knew that there was a Napoleon, who wanted to leave and move to the countryside where we would make a difference, as I used to say everyday: ‘Tomorrow I’m leaving’,” says the 64-year-old man, who decided to change his life and move with his wife and young child to the village of his ancestors.
“I lived in Athens for 25 years. I came to the big city at the age of 18 to study. During the first months after we left Athens, my wife lived with our child in the next big town, Ioannina, as there was no school in Kalarites. When I moved here, the village consisted of just 30 people. Later, we built a traditional stone guest house with ten rooms, which stays open throughout the year.”
The old traditional coffee shop retains the décor from the times of Zaglis’ great grandfather. The shelves are filled with hundreds of different foodstuffs, and he serves delicious food, in quantities that just ease the hunger, rather than today’s over-sized portions, while the local menfolk sip their tsipouro, making for a charming scene.
“Living in the countryside, of course, presents its own difficulties, but it is a great joy to live close to nature,” says Zaglis, whose daily activities include managing the guest house and coffee shop, as well as taking care of his chickens, pigs and dogs, “it’s a much simpler, but fuller, life” he says.
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