Athena Gourmet Market and Under Pressure Coffee Team Up for a Perfect Pairing

Serving Greek specialties, like spinach pies, cheese pies, and cream filled bougatsa pastry, alongside an array of sandwiches, salads, muffins, yogurt parfaits, and other sweet and savory treats, Under Pressure Café brings a global fair to a tradition of café and coffee culture that Greeks made notable as a way of life. With its first location, bustling with patrons, at the corner of 31^st Street and 31^st Avenue in Astoria, a bigger and more expanded location has recently opened earlier this year, further up the block at 23-38 31^st Avenue in Astoria.  What makes this location a little different is the addition of a gourmet Greek specialty store, Athena Gourmet Market, where everything is beautifully packaged at reasonable prices.  You can get everything you need here for your Greek Mediterranean fix, from an assortment of olives, olive oil, herbs and spices, frozen foods, to freshly prepared in-house dips like tirokafteri (spicy feta), melitzanosalata (eggplant salad), taramoslata (made with fish roe), and tzatziki (a garlic infused cool cucumber dip). I love olives, so I tried the herb-marinated olives, and they pack a real punch – tangy and bursting with flavor.  These olives were sealed tightly, vacuum packed, and simply divine.

John Stavros

I sat down with one the partners of Athena Gourmet Market, John Stavros, to get the scoop and a tour.  He was a most gracious host, getting up and greeting the throngs of patrons coming in and out. To say he is popular is an understatement. They all know him, and he knows them by name and face.  Athena Gourmet Market, he explained, started out in Brockton, MA in the 70s, as Athena International Market, which provides distribution of Greek products throughout New England.  He and his partners, Peter Malo, George Gyrnas, and Nick Papadopoulos (owner of Under Pressure Coffee), took over the business, and expanded it here in NYC with a new concept of bringing a café and gourmet market together. They have plans to open locations in Ft. Lauderdale and Philadelphia.

I met John at Athena Gourmet Market, where I sampled a vegan pie of olives and tomato. As a cheese lover, I did not miss the feta, but, of course, I had to get my feta fix, and sampled a cheese pie. Both left me wanting more. As I peered into their hot table vitrine of pastitsio (Greek lasagna), biftekia (ground beef patties with Greek herbs and spices), and lemon potatoes, I knew I would be leaving with dinner to go. I sat down with their chef Xanthi Tseliou, once a world champion in shot put, turned French culinary school student in Athens. She talked about how her passion for cooking evolved through her rigid athletic diet.  She channeled that passion for food she avoided eating into cooking. And for bonus points, her roots can be traced back to Smyrna, once a Greek colony in modern day Turkey. Whether it’s hearsay or fact, women who have lineage that can be traced back to Smyrna, have the Midas touch when it comes to cooking. Whatever passes through their “golden hands” is as good as gold on your palate. Dinner to go did not leave me with any doubt in her culinary skills.

We then moved over to Under Pressure Coffee, which is connected to the market.  I started with a cup of regular coffee. Regular is code for nothing fancy, just milk and coffee. Sugar is optional.  I wanted to try their coffee in its purest form.  This was really good coffee. The coffee is flown all the way from Australia, which is sourced from surrounding islands like Indonesia and Sumatra.  Australians, he explained, were pioneers in coffee roasting. I had no idea that those cheeky Aussies down-under were master roasters, but good coffee, John explained, is more about the technique used in roasting.  The coffee I was savoring was a medium roast with a balanced acidity, which, if you are going for a regular non-specialty coffee, is a universal crowd pleaser. The beans are flown in from Australia and freshly ground there at the shop, straight into your coffee cup.  That’s not all that is imported at Under Pressure Coffee and Athena Gourmet Market. I knew there was something extra special about their spinach and cheese pies. They tasted like Greece. They tasted like home. Those, too, are imported from Greece. For a vegan and vegetarian friendly version, they have spinach pie without cheese. Under Pressure Coffee and Athena Gourmet Market offer something for everyone. They even have their own signature brands of coffee from single sourced beans from Colombia, Guatemala, and Peru.  These are also available for purchase online through their website. If you like matcha and tea, they have that too, along with specialty coffee drinks, prepared in a variety of ways by skilled baristas. Under Pressure Coffee and Athena Gourmet Market offer a sleek, contemporary vibe, that curate themselves into an artisanal café and gourmet market that offer freshness, variety, and universal appeal, especially in a neighborhood that is brimming with culture.  Athena Gourmet Market also carries a line of Latin delicacies. John acknowledges that we are in a globalized world, and NYC is a microcosm of that world. Bringing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, like a Croque Madame or Croque Monsieur, to the sandwich menu, offers a little something for everyone.

Supporting Greek products is still a priority for John and his partners, especially as Greece continues its economic recovery. All the panels used to build the pergola and indoor/outdoor café at the second Astoria location came from Greece. Though John would love to import meats from Greece, due to certain sanctions this is not allowed. Still he wants to bring that taste of Greece into a line of frozen meat products, prepared with traditional Greek spices, that will be sold at Athena Gourmet Market. This line of frozen products will also include meats that cater to the Latino community.  They also carry gourmet meats and cheeses, like Iberico ham, soppressata, and Manchego cheese.

Athena Gourmet Market and Under Pressure Coffee make a perfect match, complimenting each other well in a contemporary, relaxed setting where you can browse for unique gifts, gourmet foods, and enjoy a cup of coffee or a snack. Warm, inviting, and welcoming, they offer just enough, and everything you need when you just want to browse, shop, or relax. Browsing is not an option. You will want to leave with something – a little extra special something to treat yourself or your friends.