On the historic site of old Pierro’s something fresh is brewing…
Coffee Cat represents our conscious decision to create an entirely fresh way of existing as a business in Mykonos. Mykonos – which, like every celebrity, has suffered the consequences fame inevitably brings: the examination of its life, both private and public, with a magnifying glass and its occasionally sensationalistic misrepresentation by the media.
Such an ambitious project could only be created in one way – with love and care; a new approach rooted in “old school” values. And what has been achieved is something unique which unashamedly harks back to the memory of the glamour-of-old - its energy, its music, its people. People who, for many years now, have avoided the town, refusing to be treated inhumanly by an increasing number of businesses who view them as walking wallets; an increasing number of businesses who believed they could get away with behaving in substandard ways and still survive comfortably by cashing in on an image and legacy created with hard work and entrusted to them by the previous generation.
What Coffee Cat seeks to bring back to the island’s day and night life is service, hospitality, affection and respect – expressed in simple, tried and tested ways: clear, pure drinks, great coffee, a clean space set up with gusto and simplicity, organic and indulgent food offerings, reasonable prices, music that invites you to sing along and remember but also allows chatter and humour, so that one might enter a stranger and leave a friend; a space where the staff’s first priority is for everyone to have a good time and not to fill the space (or the cash register) to capacity.
One might hear that “the good old customers” are gone. Not true. They simply preferred the civilized setting of their home. They did not have a space to exist in and call their own. One by one, tentatively, insecurely they begin to step in and have a freddo or a few drinks and give the team warm congratulations for creating a place that caters to everyone - not just the youngest clientele.
When the original Pierro’s was first set up by artist Pierro Aversa it had a singular feel to it. There was a personal touch, there was charm and seduction, there was “Spaghetti Tuesday” when Pierro himself would cook and offer food to friends and customers free-of-charge. The main ingredient, as he used to say, was love. A select crowd knew about it and would gather and share in this love; like Holy Communion, bite for bite, word for word.
Without any ulterior motive, the temple has opened again. During the night trays of food make the round, to cajole and caress and tempt; whatever they cost, we get back in smiles and kisses. Gilles, the head barman, mixes his famous cocktails with passion. Dimitris, the maitre d’hotel, cuddles everyone in the main room, while Panayiotis mothers folks outside.
And so, using the past as a guide and with respect for the legacy left by those who created this island’s famous past, we hope for a better future. “Yesterday” exists everywhere: under the neon signs, on the dry-stone walls covered with expensive fabrics and cushions, in the hibiscus-filled squares where children can no longer play ball, in the grains of coral sand obscured by expensive sun-loungers. There, the soul of this little island continues to exist and reveals itself to those who care to look for it. This is the Mykonos of our grandfather who created the first engine-run mill and the first ice-factory; the Mykonos of our father who, having travelled abroad and wanting to offer to the island’s visitors what he had seen, started the first breakfast café in the 70s as the original “Manto” next door to his children’s new creation. Because Mykonos’ past has always been, it seems, innovation.
This is the Mykonos which bewitched its visitors with its moonlit nights and sandy beaches; with its simple, honest hospitality. This is the island that has kept them coming back every year, for three or four decades in some cases. This is the island that we must try to preserve and prove that everything is better with love and knowledge as a guide. Knowledge gained in the very same square, working with our father next door, who taught us that people deserve nothing but the best. And this is ultimately the truth that remains and is built into the chic walls of Coffee Cat.
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