Living the Sweet Life at Omonia Cafe — Meet Pastry Chef Peter Arvanitis

by Marie Lolis

After wiping the foggy glass to ensure customers could see the pastries at his father’s cafe as a child, the now 21-year-old Peter Arvanitis can show off his own pastries as pastry chef at the iconic Omonia Cafe, blending tradition with innovation as he shapes its sweet future.

Since 1977, Omonia Cafe in Astoria, New York has remained a delicious fixture of the community, with it expanding to Brooklyn and Manhattan locations. Peter, the youngest son of owner John Arvanitis, is determined to take Omonia Cafe to the next level by using what he’s learned at prestigious culinary school and from his family to satisfy customers.

“It’s my job to push the boundaries, keep us moving forward, and to make sure that the quality is always on point, freshness is always on point. It’s all about the ingredients,” Arvanitis explained.

“I feel like each bite should be an experience. It should be something that makes you feel something, either its nostalgia or it reminds you of your grandmother, your childhood, or something you never had before.”

After arriving from Greece with $70 in his pocket, Arvanitis’ father worked as a hot dog vendor with his own push cart. Through his hard work he saved enough to open a pizzeria and then found the location where Omonia Cafe stands today. The younger Arvantis hopes to continue growing Omonia Cafe, taking on what he sees as the old school Greek struggle tied to the trendy European mindset.

“Watching his sacrifice over the years is, I’d say, inspiring, and watching my mother sacrifice alongside him. I wouldn’t have the privilege to be in a position so quickly, I wouldn’t be able to come into a brand that’s had success over the years, and it’s something that I can also call my own as well,” he said. “I’d say, [it] gives me the power to do what I do. It eliminates that voice in your head that might want to make you cut a corner, or go the cheap route.”

He did not always see himself pursuing cooking, even once considering becoming a priest. Yet as a teenager, he practiced cooking steaks and found that he not only enjoyed cooking, but felt confident that he had what it takes to be a professional.

“I knew that I would end up in the family business in one way or another, as my other two siblings did. [They] just happened to be in front of the house, not back of the house. My sister manages Amylos on 34th Street. My brother has SLDR, so they’re all involved in business in some way,” he explained. “Omonia needs help, that’s what I thought, and it needs someone who can take it forward.”

Arvanitis studied at the world-renowned Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He then applied what he learned at Ourse Athens, a high-end French-Greek bakery based in Athens, Greece, under the guidance of Michelin-starred pastry chef Spyros Pediaditakis.

“There were only five or six pastries in the display, that was it, and they were changing every season. Everything was always different, and the menu would change, and the attention to detail was top of the line,” he said.

Eventually, Arvanitis made his way back to Omonia and within the last year and a half, he has brought an emphasis for quality and modernity. “We have to pay respect to our heritage, to our Greek heritage, but we have to use French techniques and we have to elevate things a bit,” Arvanitis explained.

With an emphasis on fresh, in-season ingredients, Arvanitis focuses on quality and customer experience. Instead of relying on extracts and pastes, he prefers to work with whole ingredients, such as vanilla beans and hazelnuts, to create flavorful and delicious treats. Additionally, he offers accommodating options for those with dietary restrictions and allergies.

“I would say that Omonia should be changing, and it should always be changing. Meaning, if you find something here and during the Christmas season, you might not necessarily find it in the summer season,” he said.

Arvanitis hopes that the creation of a commissary kitchen would streamline Omonia Cafe’s goods and allow them to be produced under his leadership — guaranteeing every bite would be tied to his name. The space will give him and other bakers more of an opportunity to innovate with new pastries, mousses, caramels and flavor combinations that are all made from scratch.

“We have bakers here, bakers next door, bakers in Brooklyn. So my goal now is to build the kitchen where we can sort of organize ourselves under my lead and make sure that everyone is on the same page in terms of what we’re selling. We got to cut the menu down a little bit…We have to condense. We have to make sure that everything is in tip top shape,” Arvanitis explained. “The kitchen here will give me the tools that I need to be able to do that, and the control that I need so that I can make sure every Omonia customer is having the same experience.”

When he isn’t baking, Arvantis uses his hands for a different craft — ceramics. Before the oven, Arvanitis used the kiln to create abstract pottery. “I feel like pottery has helped me in my baking, in terms of not only hand skills, but a lot of techniques. Funny enough, with some of the same techniques, glazing something or maybe rolling things out evenly to shape cookies, [or] when we would roll things down in pottery to make handles and stuff…I feel like pottery actually has helped me in my path, in baking as well, propelled me a bit forward,” he said.

Forward thinking is what Arvanitis sees for Omonia Cafe. While progress may not be linear, the steps he plans to take will hopefully expand Omonia, but most importantly, make his family proud. “I’m happy to say that when people taste my things, they come back and they want more. So that’s what it’s about at the end of the day…My dad’s always swiping on his phone trying to find a picture of me with my chef’s hat. He finds it funny, [the photo] from my graduation at the culinary school. And he’s like, ‘He made this. He made this.’ So it’s about making him proud too. It’s that that drives me more than anything else,” he said. “The opportunity we’ve been given is too rare, and we have to respect that.”