Love Milano

What makes a small, inconspicuous café with a foreign name the morning stop of so many people? One word: passion. Passion lies behind every idea, design, and product at Amami Kitchen & Espresso Bar. Founded in 2015 by Davide Pietra, Amami aims to be the breakfast and coffee stop for Lewisburg and the surrounding area. It features a small menu of mostly original Italian dishes with a modern twist.

Davide Pietra is a tall, slender-figured Italian man that greets every customer walking through his doors with the same gap-toothed smile. Customers  know that he cares how they feel while sitting in his café and sipping his coffee. Born in Milano, Italy, Davide Pietra has cooking in his blood. Growing up, he spent Sundays in the kitchen cooking traditional Italian dinners with his grandmother. In his teenage years, he worked in several different restaurants and cafés in Italy before opening one of his own with his mother at the age of 19. The many years that followed brought with them kitchen jobs in parts of Europe, California, Indonesia, and central Pennsylvania. Through this time, Pietra learned to expand upon the traditional style of Italian cooking and modernize it. In 2013, he signed the lease to the building that would become Amami and spent nine months fixing, renovating, and furnishing before it was complete. His goal for the restaurant was to allow customers to get an Italian cappuccino paired with modernized Italian food without leaving their hometown or breaking the bank. Pierta does not believe dining should be about how full the customer feels, but about how the food looks and tastes and the experience that the customer gets from visiting his café. The name Amami, as shown on the front of the menu, translates to "love me" from Italian, but the name means more than that to Mr. Pietra. He explains how he "played with words" and used MI as an abbreviation for his birth city, Milano, and that the name means to love both yourself and where you came from. This message can be seen in Pierta's cooking, as he hopes to emphasize both his creative nature and his Italian background.

The amber rays of sunlight give the modest front room of Amami a natural glow. Although less than 20 feet across, the restaurant feels more cozy and welcoming than cramped and uncomfortable. For regulars to this small, modern café, it's easy to look forward to morning coffee stops. From across the street, you could very easily miss the faded blue building with several plastic chairs arranged in front. Two signs adorn the shop; both read "Amami Kitchen & Espresso Bar." Customers can choose to sit at any of the matching plastic chairs set at small, unfinished wooden tables. Those wishing to order walk straight through the small room to the counter at the back. Here, they can see the flavors of Italian coffee brewing along with the many syrups like caramel and mocha that can be added. Mr. Pietra can also be seen cooking and preparing every dish with care.  He chose to design his restaurant this way in order to face a subconscious fear of public judgment of his cooking abilities and styles. "I wouldn't say I was an introvert, but I certainly wasn't outgoing," confesses Mr. Pietra while looking back at the decision to put his grill in full view of his customers. The walls of the café have several different designs each accompanied by modern paintings and photographs. The base design that also matches the open rafters of the ceiling is old wooden panels complete with stains, holes, and age. Another wall is a dull gray with intricate black designs that have a velvet feel to the touch. The final design is on both the register counter and the door adjacent to it. It consists of both old newspaper clippings and stickers from common surfing brands like Coastal Edge.

The process of ordering from Amami is very simple and informal. Customers walk through the door and straight back to the counter, meanwhile being greeted warmly by the employees and Mr. Pietra, where they can pick up a tri-folded piece of white printer paper that contains the menu. Using no intricate language, unnecessary wording, or even dollar signs, the menu details a breakfast, lunch, and coffee menu in as little black ink as possible. After placing their orders, customers are given a small, wooden block with a faded red number on two sides and can then take a seat at any of the wooden tables. Employees first bring the coffee to customers in wide, stout mugs made of a darkly glazed ceramic. Baristas uniquely design the foam of each cup . While sipping on an original Italian coffee, the murmuring of conversation can be heard from the array of customers around. Along with the casual conversations between couples, friends, and colleagues, it is common to hear the clicking of keyboards as Bucknell students work while at their morning breakfast stop. Next, the food will be delivered. Mr. Pietra knew that the limited space of the restaurant would force him to use small tables and small plates. While working in a café in Indonesia in his early twenties, he observed the extravagant style of plating common in Asian countires. While not in his particular taste, Mr. Pietra applies some of these techniques to how he presents the food at Amami. "There's an old saying in Italy: 'The pleasure of the eye becomes the pleasure of the mouth,'" quotes Mr. Pietra when emphasizing the importance of how his dishes are plated. If you were to order the Nutella French Toast, you would be presented with two slices of perfectly grilled french toasted cut diagonally to reveal oozing nutella and banana slices sandwiched between. Although the smell of the cinnamon emanating from the kitchen would be enough for you to lick your lips in anticipation, the presentation of the french toast with lightly sprinkled powdered sugar, a syrup drizzle, and extra slices of banana is certainly a pleasure of the eye. The first several bites of the dish hold the many flavors that you imagined just before and it soon becomes hard to put the fork down in order to enjoy every one. The nutella melts between the slices and fills our mouth as you bite down. The warm banana slices are an interesting contrast to the sweetness of the mouthful. Each bite contains its own unique ratio of the ingredients, making every forkful worth savoring.


After finishing cooking for the morning and lunch rushes, Davide Pietra likes to go out to the filled front room of Amami and greet his customers. He strives to hear their satisfied opinions about his food, coffee, and restaurant atmosphere. He takes the empty plates and dirty silverware back to the kitchen himself after asking about the quality of the food. Mr. Pietra believes that "smil[ing] and be[ing] genuinely kind to people" is they key to a successful business, and so he spends as much time talking and making his customers feel welcome as he can. He only hires employees that share this belief in order to ensure a happy and comfortable experience for those that choose his café. Amami means more to its customers and owner than just a café. It is a place that the world can slow down for a bit and the little things can be enjoyed.