“Mitsos” in Kallithea, the old cheese pie shop we love

The shop was opened in 1970 by two brothers, from Piraeus, Dimitris (Mitsos) and Stavros Margaritis. Michalis Thermiotis is their nephew, he came from Mytilene and has worked as an employee since 1972. “I’m turning fifty this year,” he says with emotion. “Now everyone affectionately calls me “Mitsos”. In 1992 I became a partner in the shop and now I’m left alone. We start at 4 in the morning and from 6.30 we start selling until noon when the last bougatsa or cheese pie is finished. We close around 3-3.30.”

The shop hasn't changed at all since it opened, the same sign, some mirrors on the walls, the same colors, the ovens are the old ones with the plate and the characteristic stainless steel drawers where the delicacies are "hidden". Every time someone arrives at the shop, they can't see what is for sale. They ask Mr. Michalis and he opens his drawers and lists them: "5 cheese pies, 2 minced meat pies, 2 pizzas, 3 bougatsa, and finally apple pies". In these cabinets, the cheese pies and other puff pastries are kept warm and steaming. In the laboratory, the benches, taps and the characteristic dough divider have been operating normally since the 1970s. The latter cuts the dough to the same weight, as all the cheese pies and pies in general are the same size.

“Everything we make now we made back then,” says Mr. Michalis. “Everything is homemade with simple and pure ingredients. The spinach pie is made with fresh spinach, the tomato sauce for the pizza is made with fresh tomatoes. Our pizza has ham, cheese, a little pepper and fresh tomato, the dough, as in everything, is ours. The minced meat pie is made with minced beef sautéed with onion and homemade tomato sauce. It’s like the minced meat for mom’s spaghetti. I get the minced meat from the neighborhood butcher. My suppliers have been the same for 30-40 years. The apples are freshly cut. I put feta cheese from Elassona in the cheese pie. I add olive oil from Kalamata in the recipes. I only buy the sausage ready-made.”

"Here, everyone can see what I do in my workshop and how I do it. In the past, everyone would make more or less the same product because the ingredients were the same. Now you go to the bakery and there are fifty types of cookies, who makes all of these? They look artificial and smell like preservatives. You used to only find cheese pies in cheese pie shops. Now everything is ready-made in the market and no matter what you buy, it will feel heavy on your stomach. The 1980s were the best decade. Kallithea was different then, it had a market, jobs. The pandemic was the worst phase we've been through, I think."

"Mitsos" is known throughout Athens and is one of the oldest shops in Kallithea. "I will never forget when parents used to bring their children for cheese pie after their visit to the Kallithea IKA for vaccination, now these "little ones" bring their own children. Cheese pie was and is loved by everyone, young, old, foreigners, everyone knows it. My customers won't let me change the shop. I don't even put coffee, I don't want to, I want to do one thing and do it well."