Brettos has stood on Kydathineon, in the heart of Plaka, since 1909 - Athens's oldest continuously operating distillery and the photograph every visitor takes when they walk through Plaka after dark. The wall behind the bar is two storeys high, lined with bottles of the family's house-distilled liqueurs and ouzo, each bottle backlit so the wall glows in a slow gradient of colours that runs from green at one end to deep red at the other. The wall is the bar. Each colour is a different drink. The shelves, indexed.
Brettos is unapologetically a Plaka tourist landmark and has been for a century; the room fills with visitors most evenings from 8pm onwards. The right strategy is to go at 6pm, before the dinner crowd, and stand at the bar rather than sit at a table. Order three small pours from three different shelves. Forty-five minutes is the visit.