Meet the Makers George Calombaris Actually Takes You To. None of Them Are Hired for This.

4 min read

George Calombaris doesn't take guests to Athens' best-reviewed places. He takes them to his mates' places, and the two turn out to be the same thing more often than not.

Six people make up the real itinerary of this Journey: the street food guide, the market chef, the bar owners, a cellar master, a pastry legend, and the chef who left Nobu New York to spend his mornings at a farmers' market. None of them are hired for this. They're the people George already calls when he's in Athens.

The Crawl: Konstantinos Antoniadis

Before the market, before the cellars, there's a souvlaki crawl, and George doesn't lead it. Konstantinos Antoniadis — IKON5 to the people who follow his food and travel content — does. George calls him the Greek food and travel creator he trusts over any guidebook, and it shows in how the stops get picked: three counters, a bus between them, no queue-out-the-door tourist traps, including a stand called Kapsa that happens to be owned by another name on this list.

"Every year that I go, I hit him up like, mate, where have you eaten lately? What's good?"

George Calombaris with Christoforos Peskias & Stelios Parliaros

The Market: Christoforos Peskias

Varvakeios Market has fed Athens since 1886, and Christoforos Peskias has been teaching George how to actually shop it for years. Peskias trained under Ferran Adrià at El Bulli before coming home to help invent modern Greek cooking, and he runs that same instinct through Kapsa, his souvlaki shop, and Dopios, the restaurant where the market tour ends in lunch.

"Probably the Godfather of modern Greek cuisine, and one of my closest mates."

The Craftsmen: The Clumsies and the Sixth Master

Vasilis Kyritsis and Nikos Bakoulis spent a decade building The Clumsies into one of the most awarded bars on the planet — currently number one in Europe — and George has known them the whole way through. A few days later, the same kind of access shows up underground: a private blending session in the Kifisia cellars with the sixth person to ever hold the title of METAXA Master Blender, in a barrel room that isn't open to the public.

"I can't wait for you to meet these boys. They have the number one bar in Europe right now. And you get to come inside with me."

The Obsessives: Stelios Parliaros and Polychronis Damalas

Stelios Parliaros stopped working for other people in 1982 and opened Sweet Alchemy on a single question: what would Greek pastry look like built from Greek ingredients instead of a French syllabus. Polychronis Damalas took a different route to the same obsessiveness — he left a kitchen at Nobu New York to open Raw Bata in Athens, built entirely around hyper-seasonal local produce.

"He is not only a close friend, but the number one Greek pastry chef in the world. He is phenomenal. He is a genius."

"Every time I'm in Athens, I make sure I go and spend the day with him, because I'm learning stuff about ingredients I've never seen before."

Who is IKON5?

Konstantinos Antoniadis, a Greek food and travel creator George follows and trusts for where to actually eat in Athens. He leads the souvlaki crawl.

What does George bring to the cooking class at Ergon House?

George brings his experience as a chef and his perspective on Greek food to a hands-on class with an Ergon chef. Together, you'll explore the market and select ingredients before heading into the kitchen to cook and share a meal.

Are all six of these guaranteed, not optional extras?

Yes — the souvlaki crawl, The Clumsies, Varvakeios Market and Dopios, the Metaxa Barrel Room, Sweet Alchemy and Raw Bata are all confirmed Impossible Moments on the live Journey page.

Hellenic Heritage: George Calombaris' Athens

See Athens through the eyes of the people who actually run it.

Six nights in Athens, 9–15 June 2027, for up to 20 travellers — plus an optional Stay On to Paros, with Milos as an extra stop.

View the Journey