Mediterra Bakehouse – Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh - Now It's a Food Town!

Some people thought it was crazy to start an artisan bakery in Pittsburgh. Not Nick Ambeliotis.

I'm not alone in saying that Pittsburgh hasn't always been a food town. But things have changed, and an artisan bakery there is one of the agents of such change. Mediterra Bakehouse is not only benefiting from this new culture of food lovers but also, in its own way, helping to shape it.

The bakery was opened by Nick Ambeliotis in May of 2002 in an industrial park west of Pittsburgh, not far from the airport. When Nick started Mediterra he had been a food importer, not a baker. But his life was missing something. "I wanted to do something artistic, something old world, yet new," he says. As an importer in the '90s he was constantly frustrated in his attempts to sell unfamiliar food items from abroad to customers who were only interested in buying the same old things. But in 2000 a food scene was beginning to emerge in Pittsburgh and consumer desire for new eating experiences was increasing.