Vegetables from Taigetos, flour from Aridaia, beef from Kalamata, truffles from Florina. All of Greece is represented in this all day restaurant that, at its core, is all about life around the kitchen. 

Spyros Pediaditakis met Yiannis Loukakis in Thessaloniki back in 2019 and the two of them became fast friends. It was a time in his life when the young professional could really do no wrong: he was the head pastry chef at Spondi, Greece’s then only two-Michelin starred restaurant, got named best pastry chef of the year by local awards and then in 2020 by Gault & Millau Hellas, he was preparing his first cook book and was featured in food magazines all over the country. In other words, he was the talk of the town and life seemed to be really good for the Heraklion native who studied his craft in Paris. However, he was ready for a change. 

On the other hand, chef Loukakis with his famous restaurant Mourga had big accolades of his own, being credited by many as one of the main contributors to the gastronomic revival of Thessaloniki. His culinary philosophy, ingredient based -he himself goes to the bio “laiki” (produce market) every week to buy the restaurant’s supplies and has created strong bonds with the producers-, authentic and brilliant in its simplicity is exemplary. Also, in 2020 he created +Trofi, a modern “kafeneio” in the Ladadika neighborhood for tsipouro and mezedes, but featuring dishes like carpaccio John Dory as well or baked scorpionfish fillet with cream of potato etc. 

 As their friendship evolved -Loukakis even became Pediaditakis’ best man at his wedding-, so did the sharing of their dreams and goals. In the meantime the talented pastry chef had left Spondi, co-created a pastry shop in Glyfada called Ourse and had even become a father. However, his main concept, an all day spot where restaurant and bakery would meet in a harmonious way still stayed with him and his best man decided to help him bring it to life. “And there was…Akra”.

An open kitchen, like home

During my conversation with Spyros Pediaditakis I failed to ask him about the inspiration behind their restaurant’s name, Akra (it means edges or extremes in Greek). I like to think though, that it is due to the fact that the owners come (roughly) from the two edges of Greece, one from the north (Thessaloniki) and one from the south (Crete), ultimately containing the whole of the country in their modern open kitchen in Pagrati, near Proskopon Square. “It’s a restaurant that is not exactly a restaurant”, Pediaditakis tells us. “We have an open kitchen so that the guests can be right next to us just like if they were at our home. And just like we would do at home, in the morning we prepare breakfast, then lunch and dinner. We wanted to create a place that had many things to offer: a bakery where you could get your bread, cheese pie, a sandwich, desserts to go, then at lunch time, have something light to eat. We offer half portions, home-cooked meals for about 15 euros. Then, at 6 pm, we dim the lights, change the music and it’s time for dinner. We think that we offer a good value for money menu, 40-45 euros per person”. 

Since the two partners bear the same philosophy in terms of quality ingredients and food preparation, it was very easy for them to decide on the concept of their menu: “It’s based on a lot of research” the pastry chef tells us. “Like they do in good restaurants abroad we pay great attention to where every one of our ingredients comes from. We find small producers from all over Greece. There is actually an associate of ours whose job is only that, to scout for ingredients. And you know what, when you work with a product that someone has cared for, that’s not loaded with chemicals, their energy is transferred to you when you cook. That’s what happens to us at Akra, we, in turn, want to bring out all that care and work to our dishes. Our flour, for example, comes from Aridaia and Giannitsa. Out vegetables from Naxos and Alagonia, a city up on Mt. Taigetos. The beef is from an organic producer near Kalamata. I think of it this way: I want to be able to bring my two year old son to the restaurant and not have to worry about what he is eating. I know that everything is organic and of premium quality”. 

I ask him how, with premium products like that, they can afford to not have inflated prices and he responds that it has to do with the fact that they do not interfere too much with the products: “Let’s take for example the potato. We don’t make it into a cream, or chips, so that we need a staff of 8 people to handle it. One of the dishes in our menu now, for example, is cream of arseniko Naxou cheese, baked sweet potatoes “oftes” and Greek truffles. Simple to make, but elegant, due to its ingredients”. 

As for the wine list, he tells us that 30-35% of the labels they buy straight from the winemakers and only 10-15% are more mainstream and they get from merchants. They carry many bio labels and a decent amount of biodynamic and natural wines.  

The dynamic duo also has very interesting news. They are currently preparing a new project in Thessaloniki, for which they do not yet have a name. What we know is that it will be by the Aghia Sophia metro station and as Pediaditakis puts it: “It will be a distillation of Akra. We will take the things that we saw work for Akra, bring them to Thessaloniki and adapt them to the city”. We are sure that it is going to become a locals’ favorite in no time!