Outside the Bakogiannis dairy shop in Ilioupoli, a southern suburb of Athens, sits a faded 1967 Opel Kadett station wagon. It once belonged to Vasilis Bakogiannis, the family patriarch who drove through neighborhoods across the Greek capital selling fresh milk and yogurt door to door.
“I’m thinking of restoring it,” his son Giannis told me during my latest visit to the shop.
It would be more than a restoration project. It would be a tribute to the man who built a business from nothing, in difficult years, armed only with persistence and faith in his craft. That old Kadett carries countless stories — and every one of them begins with milk and yogurt.
The historic Opel Kadett belonging to grandfather Vasilis Bakogiannis, which once delivered milk and yogurt across Athens. Today, it remains parked outside the dairy shop now run by his son Giannis and grandson Vasilis. Photo: Alexandros Alexandris
The stories of Greece’s old milkmen almost always begin in the countryside. Most dairy makers came from rural villages, raised among mountains, flocks and sheepfolds where milk was boiled each day before becoming yogurt, cheese or butter. They learned the craft at home. To them, the process felt natural and inevitable. Nothing was wasted. Sheep provided warm milk every day — enough to sustain families and raise children.
Vasilis Bakogiannis walked to Athens alone from his village of Pyra, in the region of Phocis in central Greece, when he was just 11 years old. He carried with him only what he knew: milk.
He apprenticed at a dairy shop, but just as he began mastering the trade, war broke out and he returned to his village. After peace was restored, he tried again — this time with greater determination. In 1954, he finally opened his own small dairy shop at the exact same location where the business still operates today.
At the time, Ilioupoli was little more than a village on the edge of Athens. The area proved ideal because shepherds still kept sheep on nearby Mount Hymettus, giving him easy access to fresh milk. But the neighborhood alone could not sustain the business. So Vasilis first rode through Athens on a motorcycle and later in his car, calling out his products across the city.
That is how his milk and yogurt became known.
Bakogiannis yogurt, one of the first products to become widely known and loved, is still made today using the very same recipe. Photo: Vasilis Bakogiannis
Over the years, however, the city changed and local flocks disappeared. Vasilis turned instead to shepherds in the Geraneia Mountains west of Athens — people committed to preserving indigenous Greek sheep breeds. These breeds are not known for producing large quantities of milk, but they offer something far more valuable: exceptional quality.
And quality was exactly what Vasilis wanted.
He understood that relying on these native breeds meant accepting limitations. Sheep stop producing milk for several months each year, forcing the shop to close from late June until mid-October. Yet he never considered compromising with lower-quality milk simply to keep the business running year-round.
Indigenous sheep breeds from the Geraneia Mountains. These are the breeds grandfather Vasilis trusted, and the same ones his son and grandson continue to rely on today, remaining committed to the quality of their milk. Photo: Vasilis Bakogiannis
That philosophy passed directly to his son Giannis, who in 2011 left his career as a mechanical engineer to preserve and expand the family dairy shop.
Having effectively grown up inside the business, Giannis introduced new products while remaining faithful to his father’s principles. Rice pudding, custards, chocolate milk and ice cream were all his additions — each created with the same dedication and care that defined the previous generation.
The milk arrives daily from the mountains after first undergoing inspections and certification in Megalo Pefko, ensuring every product remains fresh. But freshness alone is not enough.
Sheep’s milk and chocolate milk. When Giannis took over the dairy shop, he expanded the product range while maintaining the same high standards of quality. Photo: Alexandros Alexandris
Young Vasilis, Giannis’ son and the third generation now involved in the business, explained that the family also advises shepherds on animal feed and welfare to guarantee the quality and flavor of the milk.
“We insist on indigenous breeds because we know they produce the best milk,” he said. “And what matters most is that we’ve worked with the same families for decades. My grandfather started with their fathers, and we continue today with their children and grandchildren.”
His words make clear that the most important part of their work begins far from the dairy workshop itself.
Customers from all over Athens (and the countryside)
But are Bakogiannis products truly worth crossing all of Athens for?
Without question, they are pure, deeply flavorful and obsessively crafted — and that attention to detail is exactly what sets them apart.
The yogurt, in particular, has earned near-legendary status among customers. Thick and rich, crowned with the traditional creamy skin that forms naturally on top, it is made using natural starter culture from the previous day’s yogurt. The result is exceptional flavor and high nutritional value, making it one of the shop’s most sought-after products every single day.
The sheep’s milk enjoys an equally loyal following, especially among customers drawn to its lower lactose content.
Bakogiannis custards, rich in flavor and available in vanilla and chocolate, sell out every day. Photo: Alexandros Alexandris
Regulars also swear by the chocolate milk and chocolate cream dessert. Here too, the family follows a different path: instead of sugar, they use honey. The result is products beloved by children that combine indulgent flavor with substantial nutritional value.
Nothing sold at Bakogiannis contains preservatives.
“Here, you taste milk exactly as it is when it’s milked,” Vasilis told me as he handed me a serving of rice pudding.
Freshly made and delicately trembling, with rice that still retains its texture and only enough sugar to allow the sheep’s milk flavor to shine through, it was among the finest rice puddings I have ever tasted.
Freshly made rice pudding with fresh sheep’s milk and a pinch of sugar. One of the best in Athens. Photo: Alexandros Alexandris
The vanilla custard is equally balanced and lightly perfumed — comforting enough for breakfast yet satisfying enough for an afternoon dessert, when many Greeks traditionally crave something sweet to carry them through the rest of the day. Topped with a cloud of cinnamon, each spoonful seems to possess mysteriously calming properties. Science may not explain it, but the feeling is unmistakable.
The tried and true ice cream
I saved the ice cream for last.
Whether kaimaki — the traditional stretchy Greek ice cream flavored with mastic and spices — or classic vanilla, the freshly made batches that appear each afternoon feel like small edible miracles.
Giannis proudly told me that celebrated Greek pastry chef Stelios Parliaros once singled out their kaimaki as the best in Athens.
It is easy to understand why.
Perfumed with mahleb, an aromatic spice made from wild cherry seeds, and tears of Chios mastic — the famous resin harvested exclusively on the Greek island of Chios — the ice cream delivers a flavor so authentic that even Istanbul’s historic Greek community, known in Greek as the “Polites,” would envy it.
The kaimaki ice cream personally singled out by renowned Greek pastry chef Stelios Parliaros for its flavor and quality. Unmatched and, of course, freshly made. Photo: Alexandros Alexandris
Even if you stop by only for the yogurt or milk, it is worth leaving with a cup of ice cream in hand.
During the hours I spent at the shop, customers streamed steadily through the door. The old display refrigerator — more than 50 years old — slowly emptied. Giannis and Vasilis greeted most people by name, chatting warmly as if welcoming family into their home.
Neither feels any urge to relocate to a more fashionable neighborhood or renovate the shop to give it a modern image. They love their routine exactly as it is. And they continue closing for four full months each year to remain faithful to their principles and to the customers who have trusted them for more than seven decades.
Every now and then, Giannis also makes butter — the kind that gives pastries the nostalgic aroma of desserts once baked by Greek grandmothers.
Giannis Bakogiannis, carrying on a family tradition that deserves to remain untouched no matter how many years pass. Photo: Alexandros Alexandris
I have grown weary of people romanticizing the past as if earlier times were somehow perfect. Yet places like this restore my faith in those who move forward with stubborn devotion and purpose.
I have always believed that dreamers and madmen are the ones who save the world.
And standing inside the Bakogiannis dairy shop, watching three generations preserve recipes that raised generations of children, I found myself believing it once again.
