Craft Kafe celebrates 10-year anniversary

Craft Kafe, a gluten-free café and bakery, is celebrating 10 years in business, marking a decade of growth, innovation and community connection in St. Petersburg.

Founded in 2015 by Teddy Skiaviotis, Craft Kafe was born from a personal journey. Skiaviotis, a former Wall Street trader, discovered the effects of gluten on inflammation following an ACL injury.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger said in his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding that when he’d be training for his Mr. Olympia competitions, he wouldn’t eat pasta or bread before events because he felt bloated and it didn’t make him feel good,” Skiaviotis explained. “I started looking up what causes inflammation, and gluten just kept coming up.”

His curiosity led to an exploration of gluten-free food. Early on, Skiaviotis was ready to turn that passion into a business, inspired by the early gluten-free adopters in major cities like New York.

“I remember reading about this little Italian pizzeria that opened up in the Village in Manhattan, and the letters on the wall thanking them for giving people the chance to eat pizza again,” Skiaviotis said. “Some of them hadn’t had pasta in like 10, 15, 20 years. That planted the seed.”

June Radcliffe, the St. Pete resident who inspired Teddy Skiaviotis to open Craft Kafe. Radcliffe, who has Celiac disease and can’t eat gluten, recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Photo provided.

Skiaviotis, whose family owned and operated Skidders Restaurant on St. Pete Beach for 30 years, was no stranger to the restaurant industry. After moving to Florida in 2006, he began experimenting with gluten-free recipes. A pivotal moment came when a customer at Skidders with Celiac disease, a chronic autoimmune disorder where the body’s immune system damages the small intestine in response to consuming gluten, inspired him to develop gluten-free dishes. 

“My second day working, the waitress comes up to me during lunch, and she’s angry. She’s like, ‘Go talk to this lady. She can’t have anything,’” Skiaviotis recalled. “Her name was June Radcliffe. I told her, ‘Miss June, come tomorrow and I’ll make you pizza from scratch.’ I get emotional about it.”

That experience led to the creation of Craft Kafe’s first location, at 6653 Central Avenue. Over the past decade, the business has expanded to multiple locations, including a forthcoming commercial kitchen on the south side of St. Petersburg. Skiaviotis attributes Craft Kafe’s success to its emphasis on inclusivity, innovation and experimentation.

“I wanted to tie in that awesome coffee experience with the diner experience, but then with that bakery nostalgic experience that you can’t find anywhere, and to mold it into one. I call it the glue,” he said. “I think being flexible has also helped me learn so much every day. Some customers have an egg allergy, some have a dairy allergy. Just being aware of that and being vigilant to people’s needs.”

In January, Craft Kafe’s only Tampa location closed. Skiaviotis said the size of the cafe was the issue; without a kitchen, the “glue” of specialty coffee and an array of gluten-free fare just wasn’t there.

Craft Kafe’s first outpost in Tampa, located at at 442 W. Kennedy Blvd. Suite 180, recently closed. Photo: Google Maps.

On the Pinellas side of the bridge, Craft Kafe continues to thrive. Skiaviotis believes the café’s appeal stems from its commitment to making everything from scratch: “We’re building our own flour – what bakery does that?” 

Skiaviotis said this dedication, along with strong customer relationships, has been key to the café’s longevity.

“I have an inherent trust in my vision. When we opened, gluten-free wasn’t really a thing. I remember people writing reviews like, ‘This place won’t last,’” Skiaviotis recounted. “I understood wholeheartedly that if I’m making something no one else in America is making, that’s respect for the person whose kids can’t have gluten or they’re deathly ill. That relationship with the customers is the ethos of Craft Kafe. You cannot buy relationships.”

A S’mores Latte is served alongside a house-made marshmallow, chocolate and a gluten-free graham cracker. Photo: Craft Kafe/Facebook.

“I still see the first customers who walked in 10 years ago,” Skiaviotis added. “Watching people meet here, get married, have kids – it’s incredible.”

Looking ahead to the next 10 years, Skiaviotis envisions expanding Craft Kafe’s impact, potentially growing ingredients in-house: “This has always been a legacy project. It’s never been about money. It’s about offering something special to people who need it.”

A new commercial kitchen is set to further that mission, making it easier for other restaurants to offer gluten-free options. The upcoming Skyway Marina District location, set to open at 4725 34th St. S., will serve as both a café and a production facility.

“We can sell our pie shells, pizza dough and cake mix to places that don’t have the time or resources to do it themselves,” he said. 

As Craft Kafe celebrates a decade of serving the Tampa Bay area, Skiaviotis remains committed to the café’s original mission: “It’s about making gluten-free accessible.”

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