Roots Spirits (Finest Roots)

A Spirits Address on Solonos Street

Kolonaki's main commercial arteries have long served a different Athens than the one tourists photograph from the Acropolis. Solonos Street, running through the neighbourhood's mid-section, is lined with specialist retailers, galleries, and the kind of shops that assume their customers already know what they want. Arriving at number 38, the physical address of Roots Spirits — operating under the Finest Roots name — places you in a part of the city where the market for premium spirits has been quietly consolidating for years. There is no neon, no pavement crowd-pleasing. The building fronts a street that rewards purposeful visits rather than casual wandering.

This matters as context. Athens' spirits scene has developed two distinct tiers: a broad, accessible layer built on ouzo, tsipouro, and mass-market labels sold in tavernas and supermarkets; and a narrower, more technically focused layer where provenance, craft production methods, and international recognition carry real weight. Roots Spirits occupies the second tier, and its Pearl 2 Star Prestige recognition in 2025 positions it within a small group of Athens-based spirits destinations that operate at measurable prestige level. For comparison, others in the city's recognised spirits and distillery circuit , including Brettos Distillery and Helion Distillery , serve different positioning within that same general category, but the Pearl 2 Star award signals a distinct tier of curation and prestige that is not universal across the Athens spirits scene.

What the Pearl 2 Star Prestige Rating Signals

Award frameworks in the spirits and specialist retail world function as navigational tools for travellers who cannot rely on word of mouth or prior visits. The Pearl 2 Star Prestige designation that Roots Spirits earned in 2025 is not a participation award , it reflects a formal assessment of quality, curation, and the overall standard of the operation. In practical terms, it tells you that this is not a generalist wine shop that also happens to stock some spirits, nor a souvenir-oriented bottle shop built around tourist traffic. It is a specialist address with a prestige-tier credential that can be checked against peer operations in the city.

Athens has several spirits-adjacent destinations worth mapping against each other. Metaxa Distillery operates from a heritage production and visitor context built around one of Greece's most exported spirit brands. Skinos Mastiha Spirit (Greek Spirit Co.) focuses on a geographically specific ingredient , Chios mastiha , that situates it within a very particular corner of Greek spirits identity. Polykala Distillery represents another point in the craft production segment. Roots Spirits, through the Finest Roots identity, occupies a curation and prestige-retail position: the award credential and the Solonos Street address together suggest a selection built for buyers who have done their research before arriving.

Greek Spirits and the Question of Terroir

The editorial angle worth applying to any serious spirits destination in Athens is the same one that has reshaped how people think about Greek wine over the past two decades: the idea that Greece's geography, climate, and indigenous plant material constitute a genuine terroir argument, not merely a marketing premise. Greek spirits have been slower than Greek wine to make that case internationally, but the raw materials have always been present. Tsipouro from Macedonian producers, mastiha from Chios, Cretan raki, and the herbal distillates of the Aegean islands all reflect specific landscapes in ways that international blended spirits cannot replicate.

The name Finest Roots is not an accident in this context. It signals a positioning around provenance and origin , the idea that what makes a spirit worth seeking out is traceable to specific roots: botanical, geographical, agricultural. This is the same argument that has driven collector interest in single-vineyard Greek wines from producers like those in Nemea (see Acra Winery) or across western Greece (where estates like Abraam's Vineyards are building regional credibility). In spirits, the equivalent conversation is only now gaining traction at the level of specialist retail , which is precisely the conversation that a Pearl 2 Star Prestige address on Solonos Street is positioned to participate in.

Placing Roots Spirits in the Broader Athens Experience

Visitors building a serious Athens itinerary around food, drink, and culture will find that the city's specialist addresses cluster in ways that make combined visits logical. Kolonaki, where Roots Spirits sits, is walkable from a number of the city's notable restaurant and bar destinations. The neighbourhood's density of specialist retail means that a single afternoon can move from wine to spirits to a serious aperitivo without requiring a taxi. For those building a fuller picture of Athens' drinks scene, Brettos on Kydathinaion in Plaka offers a different register entirely , a heritage distillery and bar that is one of Athens' oldest operating spirits venues , while newer operations occupy more contemporary retail formats.

The broader Athens spirits and wine circuit, mapped through EP Club's guides, includes a range of positions from heritage production to craft newcomers. Our full Athens wineries guide covers the regional spread, and our full Athens bars guide maps the drinking venues where much of this production ends up in the glass. For those whose interest extends beyond Athens, the regional picture includes established names like Achaia Clauss in Patras , one of Greece's oldest continuously operating wine estates , and international reference points like Abadía Retuerta in Sardón de Duero or Aberlour in Speyside, which provide a useful calibration for how serious spirits destinations operate at the international level.

Planning a Visit

Roots Spirits is located at Solonos 38, Athens 106 72, in Kolonaki. The Pearl 2 Star Prestige award for 2025 makes it a confirmed priority stop for spirits-focused travellers, though specific opening hours, booking requirements, and pricing are leading confirmed directly before visiting, as these details are subject to change. The Solonos Street address is accessible from the central metro network, and the broader Kolonaki area repays a longer afternoon rather than a quick drop-in: the neighbourhood's density of specialist food, wine, and spirits addresses means that time invested compounds well. For a complete picture of what Athens offers across restaurants, hotels, and experiences, see our full Athens restaurants guide, our full Athens hotels guide, and our full Athens experiences guide.