Avgi • Creating the vegan Athenian hotspot in former butchery
INTRODUCING
I grew up in Athens, studied Linguistics on Rhodes island and Bucharest. When I was a little girl, I had two passions; foreign languages and coffee. My dad bought an espresso coffee machine for our home with a book full of coffee recipes. Which triggered my curiosity and my passion to prepare coffees for others. As I got older, I started working in coffee businesses learning more and more about the world and craft of coffee. As much as I loved my studies I didn’t see myself pursuing a career in linguistics. I moved to London to work in hospitality and specifically in, of course, coffee.
5 THINGS ABOUT
OPTIMISTIC | COMMUNICATIVE | HONEST (LITERALLY CANNOT LIE FOR A DAMN THING) | PATIENT | SLEEPAHOLIC
LEAP OF FAITH
I did good research in London to learn the craft of coffee from the best in the city, which led me to Campbell & Syme. They offered me a job and I was lucky to learn from such knowledgeable, passionate, professional and kind-hearted people. They not only taught me the art of coffee, but they also allowed me to taste entrepreneurship by giving me a manager position after some time. They have been my biggest mentors and the catalysts for me to start my own business. We are still very good friends with the guys. After two and a half years working in London, my boyfriend and I decided it was time to leave the big city and travel. Simon and I left with just a one-way ticket to Bangkok and were dedicated to explore and follow the flow of life. We traveled around, organized chef’s tables, worked here and there in hospitality, and generally allowed our minds to wander. While in London we actually daydreamed of our own business. We had the name already and had turned Vegan. We thought that a vegan business at the time wouldn’t work in Greece so we let the idea ripe in our minds and continued our life. One specific day on our travels we started imagining, creating images in our minds of what this place could look like and be…
“WE BOTH FELT THIS WAS THE RIGHT MOMENT TO RETURN TO GREECE AND MAKE OUR LONG-HELD DREAM BECOME REALITY.”
AVIT
“ I BECAME A VEGAN WITHOUT ANY PRESSURE FROM ANYONE. I WAS JUST SURROUNDED BY THE RIGHT PEOPLE THAT WERE WILLING TO ANSWER ALL MY QUESTIONS AROUND THEIR LIFESTYLE.”
Creating 'AVIT did not happen by accident. We have been to a lot of vegan places and a lot of specialty coffee shops around the world. We had been flirting with the idea of making our own place for a few years before we decided to make the step ourselves. We both have a passion for hospitality, offering people our creations and sharing beautiful food, beverages and moments with others. 'AVIT is a specialty coffee shop and plant-based food restaurant in the Athenian coastal suburb, Glyfada. Besides all the good food and coffees, we do our best to be as eco-friendly as possible too. 'AVIT is simply us, the creation of Simon and myself. It’s a place full of “meraki” as we’re following our hearts. We do not know where this is going to lead us, but we feel that now we are exactly where we are supposed to be.
“I DON’T WANT TO BE THE ONE SAYING; “YOU SHOULDN’T BE DOING THAT, EATING THAT.”
GETTING STARTED
As soon as we landed in Athens from our travels, we allowed ourselves two days of rest and before we started the search for the perfect spot. We arrived in April 2018 and in May 2018 we had found our place. An abandoned butcher’s shop – not used for the past 10 years. We saw it and thought “this is it”. It felt somehow like a karmic thing to do. And so, the journey started. We thought it’ll take us two months to make it happen. The reality was more than double that time and about double the investment. It was a tough road with a lot of disappointment, drama and me thinking “this is never going to happen”. But our hard work and dedication paid off and we opened in October 2018.
“ FOR A BETTER SELF, FOR A BEAUTIFUL PLANET. ”
THE TOUGH TIMES
Creating AVIT’ took us twice as long as we initially thought. Working so hard and having only expenses for 5 months has led us to a lot of frustration and disappointment. It wasn’t easy. - In the beginning, we would do everything by ourselves in the shop. We had to open the shop, serve everyone, prepare everything and clean the whole place at the end. We ended up sleeping just a couple of hours a day to be able to manage everything and of course we were feeling exhausted most of the time.
Greek culture is quite laid-back and in business that can be quite frustrating.
Even though we were meat-oriented food culture we didn’t experience any big disappointment but the worst thing we were told from a person is “ It’s okay for vegan food.” After a lot of hard work and preparation is not the nicest thing to hear.
“I AM JUST HAPPY TO CONTRIBUTE TO ONE VEGAN MEAL PER PERSON IN A DAY.”
5 INSIDER TIPS
Whatever your budget and timeframe is to open your own shop, double it!
On Veganism: All humans are equal; all animals are our equal. If you are on the journey of eating less animal products yourself, there are a lot of books, movies, documentaries, Instagram accounts for you to have a look at. Being vegan is not only on your plate, it’s your clothes, your cosmetics etc. You can have a look at the vegan 22 challenge online, “Cowspiracy” and “What the health” documentaries to start off with. These will expose you to the truth which would be my advice. Just search for the truth. There are so many sources of information to find it if you want to.
On working together with your boyfriend: As long as you realize that you are on this planet for a little while, you just have to follow your heart. We have agreed with Simon that we will be doing this for as long as we like it. This is not something we have to do for the rest of our lives. If one of us is not happy anymore, we will move forward.
The step to follow your heart is actually not as big as we make it in our heads. You have to understand that whatever you do is not permanent. You just do whatever you want to do, for as long as you want to do it. Tomorrow maybe something goes wrong with the stars and the planets and then we all don’t wake up in the morning. Just live your life the way you want to.
There is always going to be fear, somewhere there within you. No matter what happens. If you lose everything. As long as you keep your soul, you know you will survive. It really doesn’t matter how much things collapse or break, you will always find your way back to you.
“WE ARE IN THIS WORLD ONLY FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. IT’S SUCH A SHAME TO ALLOW NEGATIVITY IN OUR LIVES.”
GET TO KNOW AVGI AND AVIT
facebook • instagram • tripadvisor • happycowPhoto credits: Fotis Manos - Yvonne - Lia Torosyan - Monika Kritikou
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