Route 66 Bar is housed in a stone vaulted building in the Stoa Liampei in the heart of Ioannina’s historic centre. It is one of four arcades that have been saved.
The name Route 66 Bar was given to the old market of Ioannina after it was set on fire by Rasim Pasha in 1870. The building where the bar is located housed one of the many leather shops, hence the large wooden hangers that cross the interior of the dome.
The arcade maintained its commercial heyday until the late seventies, when it began to decline. In the mid-nineties, the first restaurants came to breathe new life into the historic part of the city.
Route 66 has been operating as a bar dedicated to rock music since 1999.
Eleven years later, in 2010, the business passed into the hands of three good friends, Vassilis Kitsios, Giorgos Giannopoulos and Tasos Mandos.
The godfather of the new venture is Giorgos Giannopoulos, the DJ of the group, drawing inspiration from Nat King Cole’s song dedicated to the legendary Route 66, “The Mother Road,” the route that starts from Chicago and crosses America to Santa Monica.
This is how Ioannina’s renewed rock meeting point begins its new route. At a time when examples of the golden decade are slowly making their appearance in the Greek countryside.
Here, everything revolves around three main axes. Rock music from the 1950s to today, classic cocktails and Whisky.
In the metal and wooden display cases that hug the carved stone, you will find a wide variety of rum and gin in a cellar that totals more than four hundred labels.
All three owners have a great love for spirits and classic cocktails.
For years, they have successfully combined their passion for the classics with their subtly creative touch in every menu they prepare, following developments and new trends in bars without extremes.
Here, you will taste well-crafted classic cocktails and variations on them through the creative lens of Tasos Mandus and his team.
I particularly remember that variation on the Sazerac with the addition of aged tsipouro from the region and the Don Carré, which resulted from the union of two favourite classics, Manhattan and Old Fashioned, by adding aged rum and Benedictine.
But what would bars be without the people behind them. At Route 66, they can be proud of continuing to maintain the fabric of an authentic bar, where hospitality and communication through a human-centred prism are their main concern.
The same people have been welcoming you behind the bar for years. The same people serve you your drink, knowing your every wish, your every little quirk.
You will chat with the same people if you find yourself alone one evening. So nice sounds and people, and some of the best live acts in town have taken place, like that epic night with the legendary Godfathers that I had the pleasure of attending.
The patrons here cover a wide age range. They are lovers of single malt, Rye & Bourbon whiskeys, they are people who love good music and want to enjoy a cocktail or simply drink a beer while flirting and chatting.
All pieces of an atmospheric puzzle reminiscent of something from the legendary 90s, away from the obsessive pursuit of the perfect Instagram story. This bar was made out of love for communication and hospitality.
It is an authentic bar through the romantic gaze of three friends who kept its atmosphere unchanged without succumbing to the sirens of unrestrained development without identity and orientation.
I visit Route 66 often. I always find the necessary time to pass through Ioannina, even for a night. I am led to this by a charmingly recurring condition that captivates me.
Isn’t that what authentic bars are like?
Info: Stoa Liampei, Ioannina, tel. 693 7023130
Grigoris Philippatos is a columnist for Cantina. Translated by Paul Antonopoulos.
READ MORE: 3 of the best places for modern food in Exarchia.
