Mediterra Cafe: Perfecting soft pretzels and artisan baked goods with timeless craft

Nestled in the Sewickley business district on Beaver Street, Mediterra Cafe is a combination bakery, cafe, and artisan food market owned by the Ambeliotis family. In 2001, the Ambeliotis family first opened up artisan wholesale bakery Mediterra Bakehouse in Pittsburgh. Mediterra Cafe is the family's first brick-and-mortar café in the Pittsburgh area.

By popular vote, Mediterra Cafe was crowned Best Soft Pretzel in The Great PGH Pretzel Giveaway, which we ran with The Food Tasters and Twistburgh!

After the contest, we had a chance to sit down and chat with Anthony Ambeliotis, the Production Manager at Mediterra Bakehouse and Mediterra Cafe.

How long has your family been in the baking business?

We opened up Mediterra Bakehouse in Pittsburgh at the end of 2001, almost 18 years ago. About 6-7 years ago, we opened up a bakery in Phoenix, and last June, we opened Mediterra Cafe in Sewickley. We've grown all organically and tried to do everything the right way, so that we never ever put the integrity of our product in jeopardy.

What made you decide to open up a brick-and-mortar storefront in Sewickley?

It's a long answer for us. Before the bakery, my dad was involved in his family grocery store, and he made the grocery store into a specialty food store. In the 80's, he was recognized as one of the top 10 specialty food stores in America, and this was a small little town in Ohio. His passion has always been in specialty and finer foods. 

And then there was the fact that we've been in Pittsburgh for almost 20 years, and sometimes people don't even know who we are. We're in 120 Whole Foods on the East Coast, but if you ask a random stranger in Pittsburgh about Mediterra Bakehouse, nobody even knows us. We're doing this naturally leavened bread, growing and milling our own grains—doing stuff that people are doing on Instagram now. But we've been doing it for 20 years before it was even cool. 

We needed to really brand ourselves. Sewickley was always a great community to us. It was one of our first farmers markets, and so it made sense to open Mediterra Cafe here. We have so much talent in the family and everybody was assigned to do something for the cafe. That way, it made something that seemed real daunting, not so daunting.

Where do you draw inspiration for your new dishes and flavors?

For me, personally, what's on the outside doesn't matter. For me, it's on the inside. I have a deep, deep rooted passion for food, and I've been in the food business my entire life. I fell in love with bread, and the process of bread, because it's something that will never, ever, ever be fully mastered. I’m always continually trying to perfect the craft. Even if you think what you're doing is good, it can always be better. That's what drives me. Every day we've got a new chance to try to make our bread better, our pizza better, our pretzels better. Every single day. For me, it never gets old.