Cafe Liston, Corfu

Cafe Liston is the most iconic café address in Corfu, occupying a prime position under the elegant vaulted arcades of the Liston, the neoclassical parade built by French administrator François Matthieu de Lesseps in 1807 during the Napoleonic occupation of the island. The Liston is modelled on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, its arched colonnades sheltering a pavement café strip that runs along the western edge of the Esplanade — the largest square in the Balkans and one of the great public spaces in Greece. Sitting at Cafe Liston is as much about occupying a historically charged position in the heart of Corfu's UNESCO-listed Old Town as it is about what arrives on the table. The menu is a café standard: Greek coffee (traditional grounds-and-cup ellinikos kafes), cappuccino, freddo espresso and cappuccino — the iced preparations that define Greek summer café culture — alongside fresh orange juice, local soft drinks, and Corfu's singular contribution to the spirits world, kumquat liqueur. Bougatsa, the warm cream-filled filo pastry dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar, appears as the morning food of choice. The kumquat liqueur — made from the small citrus fruit grown almost exclusively in the northern villages of Corfu — can be drunk as a digestif or ordered on ice as an aperitif. Prices are elevated relative to cafés a few streets away, as is entirely expected for the location.