“Eat melomacarono to take beautiful pictures and make us sweet.” With civic gallantry, Stelios Karapiperis, founder of the legendary Riviera patisserie in Palio Faliro, encourages Nikos Kokkalias to try the delicacies he served us as soon as we arrived. We have ten minutes in the store, and the customers are all coming to buy the royal pie, and the New Year has already passed! “Until February, we are persistently asked, and we do not waste time in vain, we do a whole month after the holidays. And then we make it according to the same recipe, we just call it a bun,” he tells us. And he, who started the business in 1969, first in Patisia and then in his current position, as well as his son Giannis, who studied with him and took over the reins today, are preparing the most beautiful royal cake in the world. Shortly before the change of time, the lines reach Tritonos Street.

At the checkout and in the service, the pillar of the store is the amiable and helpful Mrs. Rula, who has a habit of never appearing in photographs and therefore quietly moves away while the lens focuses on her husband and son. The business, which remains purely family owned, takes its name from a small but famous confectionery in Şişli, Istanbul. Stelios Karapiperis, who grew up in Chalcedon, graduated from elementary school at the Great School of his family and at the age of 13 decided to study art. Thanks to his uncle, he embarked on this path. “I worked in a candy factory where I was the only Christian. The sweets we made followed the French tradition, so when I came to Greece I continued to make profiteroles and millefeuille.”

He arrived in Greece after being persecuted in 1966 and opened his own shop in Agios Loukas. In the mid-70s, Stelios Karapiperis took root in Faliro, where at that time the most beautiful mansions with gardens were located. The area loved it and still honors the “Riviera” as one of its most stylish and enduring attractions. Of course, the success of the royal pie/tsourekio extends beyond the narrow confines of the southern suburbs and spreads throughout Athens. But as soon as you open the door, the shockwave of the machete pulls you from the lapel to enter and be greeted by fine dishes at the windows and the hospitality of those waiting for you behind the counter. A worthy follower, Yiannis Karapiperis is proud when clients come to say their kind words along with their wishes: “Is there a greater reward than the love of the world? This is what my parents achieved, this is what I also want to continue,” he says with a tenderness that also shows in his preparation.