Athens’ old hangouts are few and precious. Among those still going strong is Stani, which holds a special place in the city’s heart. This year, together with Ktistakis, another classic sweet stop in the city center, Stani was honored by Gastronomos with the Athenian Dessert Award. Its brightly lit window boasting green neon signage shines like a beacon in the slightly run-down Omonia area. The smell of boiling milk, vanilla and cinnamon spill out from this almost century-old dairy shop. Waiters move back and forth carrying trays filled with custards and sheep’s-milk yogurt – tangy, and topped with a characteristic creamy skin. In its timeworn marble counters, in its high-quality products and in the courteous nature of its staff, one seems to rediscover some of the city’s forgotten charm.

Stani was opened in 1931 by Nikos Karageorgos, the son of a livestock-raising family from Athanasios Diakos in Phocis. The first shop was in Piraeus; after the WWII bombing of the port, Karageorgos relocated it to Omonia. He served what he knew from home: yogurts, rice puddings, custards, hot milk and butter with honey.

“Our Stani is a time capsule, an archive of tastes, aromas and nostalgia,” says Nikos’ grandson, Thanasis Karageorgos, who is still following the same original recipes. “While everything changes, it can proudly preserve what existed decades ago.” 

At dawn, the milk truck arrives in Omonia. The dairy that the shop works with is run by the grandson of the very dairyman who supplied Thanasis’ grandfather, reflecting relationships of trust built over time. The milk is taken into the spotless workshop, where a large portion becomes yogurt.

“The foundation of the shop is, and will always be, humble yogurt,” Thanasis says. “What you hold in your hands today contains a trace of the yogurt my grandfather made decades ago, because yogurt has a dual role: it is food, but it also acts as the starter culture, the element that will make the next milk set. Our yogurt is itself a living, continuous chain, unbroken for 94 years.” 

The remaining milk becomes, among other things, vanilla and chocolate custard, made with real eggs cracked by hand, one by one. Devotees of rice pudding know they will find perhaps the best in Athens at Stani: velvety, gently sweet, with the ideal balance of cream and rice. Careful hand-stirring, Thanasis explains, ensures the perfect texture: “You have to stand over it, adjusting the temperature. Watch it. See how it boils and swells. That’s the difference with homemade rice pudding – you should feel the rice in your mouth, not eat a uniform mixture where nothing stands out. And it shouldn’t be too sweet. It doesn’t need to be. You have to let the beautiful taste of milk come through.” Straight from the pot, the steaming rice pudding is spread out onto shallow plates to be eaten on the spot, or put into small tubs to be taken home.

Another signature product is anthogalo, a fior di latte cheese. Over the years it had disappeared from the menu, but after many attempts – efforts based on vivid descriptions from longtime customers – Thanasis was able to recreate it and bring it back to the dairy shop. It is a refined, unsweetened and airy treat, served in a glass with honey; together with tray-set yogurt with honey and walnuts, it forms the essence of a Greek breakfast.

Stani also prepares fine seasonal sweets worth trying; melachrini, a dark dessert with a molasses-like flavor, and moustalevria, a treat made with grape must from Spata, served with cinnamon and plenty of walnuts from Athanasios Diakos, the owners’ hometown, are autumnal treats. In summer, customers cool off with kaimaki ice cream flavored with salepi and Chios mastiha, while during the Christmas holidays the shop’s fluffy kourabiedes, packed with crunchy almonds and a piercing buttery aroma, are reason enough to walk to Omonia.