The Secret of Sustainable Sips: Two World’s Best Bars Take Over Avra for Great Sunday Club at Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens

In a match made in sustainable mixology heaven, Avra’s Great Sunday Club at Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens welcomes Cartagena’s Alquímico and local gem, The Bar in Front of the Bar to the Athens Riviera on May 26, 2024. From 6:30 to 10:00 pm, two World’s Best 50 Bars and Earth-first champions will shake up innovative drinks made with Avra garden produce. The event also marks the launch of the second year of Avra’s annual Seasonal-Original-Sustainable Cocktail Menu, showcasing four local ingredients through their various seasonal states.

In a match made in sustainable mixology heaven, Avra’s Great Sunday Club welcomes Cartagena’s Alquímico and local gem, The Bar in Front of the Bar to the Athens Riviera on May 26, 2024. From 6:30pm to 10:00pm, two of the World’s 50 Best Bars and Earth-first champions will shake up innovative drinks made with Avra garden produce. The event also marks the launch of the second year of Avra’s annual Seasonal-Original-Sustainable Cocktail Menu, showcasing four local ingredients through their various seasonal states.

A Blooming Inspiring Garden Picnic

On Saturday, May 25 at 2:00 pm, the bars’ creatives and their sustainable drink brand partners will host a picnic and panel talk in Avra’s gardens. Open to the members of the bar industry as well as curious guests, it’s a chance to come together to share and discover innovative, future-forward ideas.

“At Avra, connecting with people on the same sustainability path as us is a core value,” comments Avra Bar Manager Manon Kapfer. “This takeover is all about sharing stories of innovation and creation and taking steps forward together. We want to show how it’s possible to shake up the bar industry in a fun, creative and planet-friendly way.”

Meet The Mavericks and Their Creations

Alquímico, Cartagena - Jean Trinh, Miguel Mora and Paola Oviedo

Ranked #9 in World’s 50 Best Bars and winner of Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2020, Alquímico harnesses Cartegena's hip, buzzing energy over three floors of a converted mansion. During the pandemic, owner Jean Trinh invited his staff and their families to create a visionary new farm: growing ingredients, living communally, supporting the local community and establishing an essence of togetherness one can taste in every creative Alquímico sip.

Alquímico’s cocktail offerings include Mejorana, a fragrant merging of O/Purist gin and zesty lemon with oregano leaf and basil, and I-Amas, which reveals secrets from the Alquímico farm with its deceptively simple combination of O/Purist and Farm Cordial. A hymn to Colombia, Ayu showcases Mataroa Gin, coca leaf cordial, suze, and orange blossom water. Clean flavours and equally sustainable values come from sponsors O/Purist Tsipouro - redefining traditional Greek favourite for a modern audience - and Mataroa, a Mediterranean gin combining 12 botanicals including Greek mastic, French lavender and Spanish orange rind.

The Bar in Front of the Bar, Athens - Alexandros Tselepis, Konstantinos Theodorakopoulos and Simeon Papanikolaou

The Bar in Front of the Bar (#98, World's Best Bars) is a bold and quirky streetside cocktail bar in central Athens run by friends Alexandros Tselepis and Konstantinos Theodorakopoulos. Attention-grabbing signs and design are as fresh as the bar’s daily changing menu - a small selection of unconventional and original drinks made with a zero-waste mentality (think carrot tops, wild chicory and foraged mushrooms). Creative and generous, the friends post their recipes to the bar’s Instagram to encourage at-home experimentation.

Avra, Athens - Manon Kapfer

Playing host to her comrades in sustainability is Avra Bar Manager and nature-lover Manon Kapfer. At Avra, Manon and her team create modern-day alchemy from their on-site mixology laboratory. A quarterly evolving homage to local ingredients, Avra's 2024 Seasonal-Original-Sustainable Cocktail Menu explores honey, lemon, apple, and olive.

Bright with the notes of nature’s liquid gold, Honey artfully combines Angostura Reserva Rum with chamomile, jasmine, and violet flower honeys. Michter's Bourbon and Calvados Michel Biron is paired, with a cider reduction and apple butter bitter, in Apple, while the rich flavours in Olive come courtesy of O/Purist Tsipouro and herbaceous olive leaf cordial.

To be part of Avra’s shared vision for the future, call 21 0890 1000.