Dec. 4, 2015 By Michael Florio
A longtime Astoria bakery is set to reopen at a new location next week.
Lefkos Pyrgos, the popular bakery that has been in business for more than 40 years, will reopen next week at 33-02 Ditmars Blvd., according to manager Leandros Gkezos.
Gkezos said the owners, Petros and Wioly Pantazis, are targeting Monday for the opening but doors should be open by the end of the week at the latest.
“They [the owners] are very excited to be opening again,” Gkezos said. “They can’t wait.”
“They really wanted to open before Christmas, which is a very busy time,” he added.
Lefkos Pyrgos was previously located on the corner of 31st Street and 23rd Avenue, but was forced to move when the building owner decided to lease the space to Time Warner Cable. The bakery had been in business since 1970.
Originally, the owners were unsure if they wanted to open again, according to Angelo Haskis, a consultant with the bakery.
“At first it looked like they weren’t going to reopen,” he said.
However, the Pantazis’ live in Astoria and could not go out in the neighborhood without residents asking if they would reopen, Haskis said.
“They are back by popular demand,” he said.
Gkezos added that the bakery is their passion and they felt lost without it.
The new menu will be similar to the original, with some added items. The bakery will serve a wide variety of pastries such as apple turnover, tiramisu and strawberry shortcake. It will also have Greek pastries such as baklava, diples, ravani and kataifi.
All of the baked goods are handmade on location.
Gkezos said several organic pastries have been added to the menu.
The bakery will now have a greater emphasis on coffee, serving cappuccino, espresso, latte, Greek coffee and American coffee, Gkezos said. There will also be a variety of flavors such as coconut and caramel.
Along with the wide variety of hot and ice coffees as well as tea and soft drinks, the bakery is also planning to serve red and white wine, as well as beer and liquor, including Baileys Irish Cream.
“We will serve Baileys either in coffee or say a customer wants a shot of it along with their dessert,” Gkezos said.
The new Lefkos Pyrgos will also offer baking lessons once a week, where customers can learn to bake different items, such as cheesecake. Cost and schedule are still in the works.
The bakery can seat up to 60 people, which is larger than the 25 to 30 people it could seat at the original location. Gkezos also said that the owners are looking to set up 20 outdoor seats in the spring.
The hours are still being worked out, according to Gkezos, but it will open at either 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. until midnight, seven days a week.
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5 Comments
Where are they making all the money they’re laundering through this front?
Mmmmmm seems like a nice guy
I will give them a fair shot. Let me see if they changed and bring their service up to speed.
So I actually spoke to the owner of their former site they did not want to pay the increase on their lease and were actually evicted
Then, he found TWC to take over.
I can’t wait to be mistreated again once this new location opens up. I’ve never met such miserable people
The OWNERS of the former site (its two brothers and not just one person) were actually looking to rent the whole corner they owned and didnt even discussed with Yiouli and Petros (the owners of Lefkos Pirgos) any increase on lease because they were interested to rent as a whole all 3-4 stores they owned in that corner which they managed to do through TWC. They can do whatever they want with their property but lying about it is not nice, actually when the owners of Lefkos Pirgos where looking for them to discuss about a new lease and new list they were just hiding and told them, you shall speak with our lawyers which never happened. I live just across the street and know the story first hand.