By Tania Georgiopoulou

A bowl of vegetable soup, handmade bread rolls, stuffed onion, lamb shank, apricot and apple sauce, pancetta, yogurt dip, and a sweet creme brule with orange and cardamom all comes for the price of 10 euros every Tuesday at Athiri (15 Plataion, Kerameikos), as part of a campaign run by the City of Athens.

Eva Lambraki, the queen of the kitchen at Cretan restaurant Katsourbos in Pangrati (2 Amyntas), explains that the 10-euro menu there will include an individual salad, a main course of the diner’s choosing, sweet cheese pies and a serving of raki.

The campaign, which was launched last months, is aimed at creating ways of attracting more people -- shoppers, diners etc -- to parts of the city center like Kolonaki, Pangrati, Monastiraki, Exarchia, Psyrri and Thiseio, on nights that have become customarily slow in terms of business, in an effort to boost activity in the recession-hit retail, dining and entertainment sectors in downtown Athens.

Starting next Tuesday, May 15, and for the following three Tuesdays, restaurants participating in the scheme will be offering a special menu at the price of 10 euros per person. A number of cafes are also joining the campaign with 2-euro coffees, while bars will be selling alcoholic beverages at 5 euros rather than the usual average 6-7 euros.

The names and addresses of the establishments participating in the “Let’s Go Out in Athens” campaign are posted on www.cityofathens.gr, which so far total 30 restaurants, bars and cafes.

Meanwhile, the city’s municipal music ensembles have also joined the effort to liven up the capital with free concerts by the Athens Philharmonic on May 15 on the pedestrianized Valaoritou Street in Kolonaki as well as at the Workshop of Greek Music in Thiseio, on May 22 in Psyrri and on May 29 in Plaka, while the Athens Big Band will play Monastiraki on May 22.