As is proper for a great capital city, Athens is full of grand edifices crammed with objects that you can pay to see. The most famous of these objects are very old; many of them are very beautiful, too. For the most part, it is the old beautiful stuff that steals the headlines, and while that’s understandable, considering the undeniable magnificence of these venerable objects, there’s a fair share of newer material that deserves attention, too. If visits to the archaeological museums of Athens – amazing institutions with spectacular collections – cause us to consider how shockingly close we are in thought and deed to our ancient progenitors, then a trip to any of the city’s equally impressive modern art museums reveals that there is still always more to us than what history tells us. The flash of recognition we feel in the presence of millennia-old artifacts confirms much about who we humans have always been, but the eureka moments brought about by artworks from the last hundred years or so open doors to all the other worlds that we contain as possibilities.

Three places where you can explore these illuminating inner realms are the National Museum of Contemporary Art, or EMST, housed in a former brewery on Kallirois Avenue; the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation on Eratosthenous Street in Pangrati; and the Pireos 138-Benaki Museum on Pireos Street in Gazi. Each museum hosts compelling temporary exhibitions – EMST and the Basil and Elise Foundation both have permanent collections as well, with that of the latter being particularly impressive, loaded as it is with heavyweights such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Degas, Cezanne, Miró and Chagall.

 

 

 

 

 

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Of course, once you’ve satisfied that cultural hunger, you’ll need food of a more tangible sort. A seven-minute walk from EMST is Kalamaki Bar, on the corner of Drakou and Dimitrakopoulou streets in Koukaki, where the meat skewer (“kalamaki” in Greek) is always the order of the day, although the truly ravenous can order up a T-bone should they wish. Open since 2012, this casual restaurant offers a nonetheless more sophisticated sit-down approach to Greece’s street-food skewer scene, and the quality shines through with every bite. Options on the stick include moist, tender liver; flavorful lamb; tasty veal; classic pork; and juicy chicken thigh.

At 7 Ivykou Street, less than two minutes from the front door of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation is the popular family-run neighborhood taverna Stavros, with tables on a small tree-fringed courtyard facing a shaded lane. A favorite among locals since it opened in the early 1990s, the eatery serves fresh seafood, including excellent grilled sardines and crisp-fried anchovies, striped red mullet and tender squid in a friendly, informal space. As the owner Stavros Konstantopoulos, a permanent presence in the kitchen, explained to me, he didn’t set out to open a seafood joint, but an elderly regular kept asking for fish to be put on the then meat-heavy menu, and soon there was no turning back. One happy exception to the decades-old shift from flesh to fish are the keftedes, or meatballs: light, airy and minty works of art in themselves. The house wine goes down easy, and lucky diners may find their meal ending with a complimentary serving of tiganites, a humble but delicious fried dough dessert that Stavros learned to make from his grandmother back in the mountain village of Klindia, in the northwest Peloponnese.

Not much more than a two-minute walk from Pireos 138 – Benaki Museum in Gazi is To Palio Podilato (“The Old Bicycle”), where Tasos Papadatos makes the scrumptious food that his wife serves at the tables on the shaded sidewalk at 11 Andronikou Street . The menu boasts a wide range of regional specialties such as Gouna Naxou, a recipe from the island of Naxos for sun-dried grilled fish, and marathopita, a savory Cretan fennel-frond pie, as well as plenty of other meze dishes (fava, mushrooms and more) and inventive salads. Larger options include grilled squid and pork chops. Best of all, there’s a very good selection of Greek craft beers to further complicate your decision-making process.

Art, ancient or modern, helps us to understand who we are, how we got here and where we might go, but it’s food, glorious food, that actually keeps us going.