Fifteen seasons on Houlakia bay, still the same three boats. Twenty-two tables above the water, one wood fire, and a rule we have never broken: only what landed this morning.
Thalassa is built on a caper terrace that Yannis Veneris’ father worked for forty years. When Yannis and Marina rebuilt the small storehouse in 2009 they roofed seven tables and changed almost nothing else — the drystone walls that hem the deck are the original ones.
Nothing here is indoors. Every table sees the water, which is wonderful in July and a decision you feel in late September.
There is no freezer for fish on this property and there never has been. If the boats do not land it, it is not on the board. In a hard meltemi week the board is short, and we would rather explain that than serve you something that was frozen in another country.
The first season we cooked seven dishes on one wood-fired plancha. The card has grown; the fire has not moved.
Three answers we give often enough that they may as well be written down.
Not in season, not out of it, and not as a fallback when the wind keeps the boats in. If we cannot get it off a boat we know, it comes off the board for the night.
Dinner is one seating at 20:00 and the pass closes when the last wedge of lemon is gone — usually somewhere around 23:30. It has been argued about every season since 2011 and the answer has not changed.
We name the fish, the boat and the method, and we tell you honestly which one we would order tonight. If the answer is the sardines at €18 rather than the lobster, that is the answer you will get.