The opening of the "Nikteritha" coffee shop in the main square of Makriotika on Saturday 26th May 2007.

Visitors to Agia Efimia may be interested to know that the Nikteritha coffee shop (means The Bat in greek) in the village of Makriotika near by has been fully refurbished and re-opened to the public. The revamped Kafenion was blessed by Papa Jannis before the Mayor cut the ribbon and declared the coffee shop open. It is well worth a few minutes detour so you can visit the picturesque village and enjoy a cool drink or a cup of coffee whilst sitting in the square and taking in the atmosphere and seeing the spectacular and breath taking views down the valley to Agia Efimia, the sea and Ithica beyond.

A bit of history has been revived. What is more, in keeping with the best of the Nikteritha traditions of "setting the pace" for others to follow, the Nikteritha is now an internet cafe!!

(Above) Picture of Papa Jannis giving the Kafenion a blessing.

             
Written By Serandis Apostolides. Researched by his wife Katerina, the pictures are of the opening ceremony.

The Municipal coffee shop of Pylaros "The Nikteritha" is situated and operates in the central square of Makriotika which all the locals call Maclithari. It was inaugurated, in it's present form, on the 26th May 2007. It was originally situated about 50 meters further down the road towards Markata, where we now see the house of the Alyssandratos family.

Early in 1930 the Nikteritha was one of many coffee shops operating in the village of Makriotika. At that time, Pylaros had a population of about 4,500 people and was pulsing with life. There were four primary schools and every church had a resident priest. It's windmills and olive presses worked full time. Of course, there were the ever present coffee and grocery shops where you had your hair cut, picked up your mail and newspapers, placed your order with the "trader" for things you wanted brought in from Argostoli, Patras or Athens, and then collected them a few days later.

(Above) The crowds start to gather before the opening ceremony.

The Nikteritha Kafenion, Makriotika.

Above all, the coffee shops were the hub of human communication and recreation in the villages during a period when time rolled by at a different pace. Although it did not have a name then, the Nikteritha was one of a number of coffee shops in the village at that time. Christoforos Alyssandratos, then the young owner, decided to offer dancing lessons to his clients in the kafenion. Tango, waltz, foxtrot etc. The school teacher of Makriotika, Vangelis Makris, undertook to give the dancing lessons as well as the Corfiot Dimitris Koulouris, Gerasimos Patres and others. The response was more than was expected.

A gramophone was bought and the collection of 78rpm records soon reached 500! All new records that were released in Greece were very soon within the collection of the Nikteritha, through the kind services of a friend living in Athens. The lessons lasted for about 3 years, giving the cafe a reputation for being the centre of entertainment in the area, So much so that the patrons who are still alive today remember those days with nostalgia. Then the war came, the occupation and the Civil War. Many people left Kefalonia for one reason or another, but the cafe kept going under the new owners Babis and Stavros Berdebes who finally gave the cafe a name "Let's go to Hara", which of course soon came to be just plain "Hara".

The next ten years were very difficult for all in Greece and the cafe was often shut down for various reasons. But it was never closed for long and it never lacked customers. On the contrary, it's reputation had long ago spread out of the bounds of Pylaros. In 1950, Kostas Alyssandratos came back after his release from the army and took over the cafe, changing it's name to Nikteritha, after a friend mentioned that was the name of the best cafe in Paris.

Kostas created a dancing floor in front of the cafe - traces of it are still visible. A battery operated electric sign is put over the door of the cafe, a record player with two loudspeakers is installed and the music is heard around the neighbourhood. The old gramophone is put away only to surface after all these years as an exhibit of the new cafe on May 26th 2007!

The staff are always ready with a warm welcome!

Then the radio came, another wonderful novelty. Even women came to the cafe to hear the transmission of the Sunday church service. The cafe went on, always full of customers who talked about everything under the sun, played cards, billiards and danced on Sunday night and at all traditional feast days. Beer by the glass was introduced which at that time was only available in the municipal cafe of Argostoli.

Some of the older members of the community who remember the way it was before the earthquake

The two fatal days in August of 1953 fell on Kefalonia and the other islands. In spite of the earthquake, the Nikteritha kept going in a wooden shack built on the spot. Soon it was time to move. A square is built in Maclithari and the Nikteritha moves in. Late in the 1950's, Kostas buys the lot from Eleni Gazi and builds the cafe as we see it now, but things have changed. Thousands leave Kefalonia. Only those who for some reason or other cannot go, stay behind. Kostas remembers twenty young people leaving in a single day for Australia. The operation of the cafe is left in the hands of relatives and Kostas himself leaves for Athens and then he too, goes to Australia.

He comes back in 1987 and tries, without success, to revive the cafe. In 1988 he sells it to the family of P. Kaliakoudis who continued to operate it.

The cafe, Nikteritha, never found it necessary to be identified geographically. On the contrary, "Let's go to Nikteritha" meant "Let's go to Makryotika". Now in 2007, renovated, shiny and with the same name, the Nikteritha starts a new life as the community cafe of Pylaros.

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