Sofra Bakery & Cafe
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2008
- HeadquartersCambridge, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
Sofra Bakery & Cafe firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Sofra Bakery & Cafe
- Legal name
- Sofra Bakery & Cafe
- Website
- https://sofrabakery.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2008
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Sofra Bakery & Cafe industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Bakery & Cafe
- NAICS
- Retail Bakeries (311811), Baked Goods Retailers (445291), Full-Service Restaurants (722511)
- SIC
- Retail-Eating Places (5812), Bakery Products (2050)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Cafe-Bakeries (Bakery + Coffee/Foodservice) (THAFAFAG)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Ethnic & Regional Bakeries (e.g., Middle Eastern, Asian, Latin) (THAFAFAJ), Bread & Pastry Specialty Stores (CRAHAGAC)
Keywords
Where Sofra Bakery & Cafe is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Cambridge
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Sofra Bakery & Cafe business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Cafe Food and Beverage Sales: In-cafe dining and takeaway sales of Middle Eastern pastries, baked goods, savory dishes, and beverages
- Retail Merchandise: House-made preserves, prepared foods, spices, and carefully-sourced pantry staples sold in-store
- Catering Services: Large party orders for pickup or drop-off, including brunch, pastry offerings, meze bundles, and individual items for events
- Cooking Classes: Demonstration-style cooking classes taught by chefs, with ticket prices ranging from $75-$180 per person
- Gift Cards: Digital and physical gift cards sold for use at cafes and retail merchandise
- Gift Boxes: Curated gift box collections including The Ultimate Sofra Box, Ana's Mediterranean Pantry, Maura's Sweet Essentials, and Sofra Spice Bundle
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Cooking class tickets with book |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Standard cooking classes |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Gift cards |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels3 records
Sofra Bakery & Cafe product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Sofra Bakery & Cafe operates a Middle Eastern bakery, cafe, and retail store offering sweet and savory pastries, meze, hot entrees, and beverages inspired by the traditional cuisines of Turkey, Lebanon, and Greece. The cafe doubles as a retail marketplace for house-made preserves, prepared foods, signature spice blends, and carefully-sourced pantry staples from local and international food artisans. Additional paid offerings include demonstration-style cooking classes, event catering and private buyouts, gift cards, and curated gift boxes.
Product overview
Sofra Bakery & Cafe operates as a single-location Middle Eastern bakery, cafe, and retail store in Cambridge, Massachusetts (with a second Allston location), offering a unified experience combining dine-in/cafe service, retail provisions, cooking classes, and catering. The core offerings center on Middle Eastern cuisine featuring sweet and savory pastries, meze, and hot entrees, complemented by a retail marketplace selling house-made preserves, artisan spices, and specialty pantry items. Additional services include cooking classes taught by the culinary team, event catering and private buyouts, curated gift boxes, gift cards, and a cookbook. The business maintains a partnership with Siena Farms for locally-sourced produce.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Soframiz: Cookbook brand - a collection of 100 recipes from Sofra Bakery & Cafe showcasing modern Middle Eastern spices and flavors.
Products and services
- Cooking & Baking Classes Demonstration-style cooking classes taught by Sofra chefs covering Middle Eastern cuisine techniques, seasonal recipes, and pastry skills, with ticket prices ranging from $75-$180 per person; some classes include an accompanying book (e.g., Lebanese Baking class priced at $76 with book, $55 without).
- Catering & Events Large party catering with pickup or drop-off options for events, including brunch, pastry, meze bundles, and hors d'oeuvres; both locations available for private buyouts during evening hours (6:30-10:00 pm).
- Retail Provisions House-made preserves, prepared foods, signature spice blends, and carefully-sourced pantry staples from local and international food artisans, including spices, dried goods, olive oil, coffee, tea, and preserves; sold through the in-cafe specialty marketplace.
- Gift Cards Digital and physical gift cards available in any denomination for purchase and use at Sofra cafes and on retail merchandise.
- Gift Boxes Curated gift sets featuring Sofra items and partner artisan products, including The Ultimate Sofra Box, Ana's Mediterranean Pantry, Maura's Sweet Essentials, and Sofra Spice Bundle.
- Soframiz Cookbook Award-winning cookbook by Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick featuring 100 recipes from Sofra Bakery showcasing modern Middle Eastern spices and flavors; available for purchase in-cafe, including autographed copies.
- Sofra Lover's Share Subscription Box A Sofra-branded weekly subscription share offered alongside Siena Farms CSA, bundling ready-to-eat meals, pastries, meze, and pantry goods for pickup at Sofra.
Quantifiable outcome
- Featured on New York Times Restaurant List as one of America's most exciting restaurants
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Sofra Bakery & Cafe
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Sofra Bakery & Cafe technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Sofra Bakery & Cafe partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Siena FarmscoreSofra maintains a special relationship with Siena Farms in Sudbury, owned by Chef Ana Sortun's husband Chris Kurth. The farm provides locally grown produce featured in Sofra's seasonal menu. Sofra is also a weekly pick-up location for Siena Farms' CSA Farm Shares and offers the Sofra Lover's Share subscription box.
- Oleana Restaurant GroupcoreOleana Restaurant Group is the parent company that created Sofra Bakery & Cafe as its second location in 2008. The group also includes Sarma restaurant.
- Uber EatsminorThird-party delivery partnership for distributing Sofra products to customers in the Boston area
- Four Star FarmsminorLocal supplier of sustainably-grown grains and freshly milled flour from a 14th-generation family farm in Western Massachusetts
- BelazuminorIngredient supplier founded by George Bennell, providing ethical, sustainable food products including argan oil
- La Boite a EpiceminorSpice supplier founded by Lior Lev Sercarz, with a blend named after Ana Sortun. Provides premium spice mixes sourced globally.
- Curio SpiceminorFounded by former Sofra Manager Claire Cheney in 2015. Woman-owned Public Benefit Corporation sourcing spices from farms and communities in over 10 countries.
- Rumi SpiceminorPartners with Afghan farmers to bring sustainably-farmed saffron. Employs more than 1900 women in Herat, Afghanistan. Sofra carries their Afghan saffron and saffron gems.
- Canaan Fair TrademinorSells olive oil, honey, nuts sourced from small-scale growers in Palestine. All products are USDA organic.
- Karma CoffeeminorSmall-batch roaster based in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Works directly with growers for socially responsible, great-tasting coffee. Used for brewing at Sofra.
- MEM TeaminorSpecializes in sourcing, blending and distributing high-quality loose-leaf teas to the food service industry since 1999.
- MymouneminorStarted by two sisters in 1989 in Lebanon during the civil war. Preserves hand-picked fruits in small batches with nothing added.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Sofra Bakery & Cafe competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Dominique Ansel Bakery: Chef-driven NYC bakery-cafe known for innovative pastries and cronuts, with London and Tokyo locations. Comparable to Sofra in its chef-anchored, premium pastry positioning and cookbook/content-driven brand extension.
- Bien Cuit: NYC specialty bakery and cafe focused on European-style breads and pastries with retail provisions. Overlaps with Sofra on the curated bakery-cafe-retail marketplace hybrid format and chef-quality positioning.
- Maman: French-inspired cafe-bakery chain with locations across NYC and other major US cities. Closely comparable concept in the elevated cafe-pastry-retail hybrid space, though focused on French rather than Eastern Mediterranean cuisine.
Direct peers
- Levain Bakery: NYC-founded artisan bakery known for premium cookies and pastries with multiple US locations plus nationwide shipping. Competes with Sofra in the premium, branded bakery-cafe space with strong national brand recognition.
- Tatte Bakery & Cafe: Boston-born cafe-bakery concept that has scaled to dozens of locations across the US East Coast. Offers pastries, cafe fare, and retail pantry goods in a similarly elevated, design-forward format and is the most visible scaled competitor to Sofra in the same category.
- Flour Bakery + Cafe: Joanne Chang's bakery-cafe chain headquartered in Boston with multiple Cambridge/Boston locations. Operates an almost identical cafe-bakery-retail hybrid model with pastries, sandwiches, and pantry items, making it Sofra's closest same-market direct peer.
- Breads Bakery: NYC-based artisan bakery with multiple Manhattan locations featuring Middle Eastern-leaning pastries (including the famous babka). Overlaps directly with Sofra's Eastern Mediterranean pastry positioning and cafe-retail hybrid format.
Regional players
- Hi-Rise Bread Company: Cambridge-based artisan bakery and cafe. Several Sofra team members previously worked at Hi-Rise, and it operates the same neighborhood bakery-cafe model in Sofra's home market, making it a directly comparable regional peer.
Others
- Oleana Restaurant: Flagship of the Oleana Restaurant Group and Sofra's parent concept. Eastern Mediterranean fine dining in Cambridge by Chef Ana Sortun; useful as an internal benchmark for the parent brand and shared target customer.
- Sarma Restaurant: Sister restaurant to Sofra under the Oleana Restaurant Group, sharing founder Ana Sortun. Provides a useful internal benchmark for Sofra's parent-group economics and same-cuisine (Eastern Mediterranean) full-service dining comparable.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Sofra Bakery & Cafe social profiles
Digital presenceSofra Bakery & Cafe financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Sofra Bakery & Cafe leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
Sofra Bakery & Cafe funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Sofra Bakery & Cafe M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Sofra Bakery & Cafe
What does Sofra Bakery & Cafe do?
Sofra Bakery & Cafe operates a Middle Eastern bakery, cafe, and retail store offering sweet and savory pastries, meze, hot entrees, and beverages inspired by the traditional cuisines of Turkey, Lebanon, and Greece. The cafe doubles as a retail marketplace for house-made preserves, prepared foods, signature spice blends, and carefully-sourced pantry staples from local and international food artisans. Additional paid offerings include demonstration-style cooking classes, event catering and private buyouts, gift cards, and curated gift boxes.
Is Sofra Bakery & Cafe a public or private company?
Sofra Bakery & Cafe is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Sofra Bakery & Cafe founded?
Sofra Bakery & Cafe was founded in 2008. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Sofra Bakery & Cafe based?
Sofra Bakery & Cafe is headquartered in Cambridge, United States, in the North America region.
How does Sofra Bakery & Cafe make money?
Six revenue lines are on record. Cafe Food and Beverage Sales are the primary driver. The others are retail Merchandise, catering Services, cooking Classes, gift Cards and gift Boxes.
Who are Sofra Bakery & Cafe's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Dominique Ansel Bakery, Bien Cuit and Maman. Direct peers are Levain Bakery, Tatte Bakery & Cafe, Flour Bakery + Cafe and Breads Bakery. Hi-Rise Bread Company is listed as a regional player. Others are Oleana Restaurant and Sarma Restaurant.
Does Sofra Bakery & Cafe have an API?
No public API is recorded for Sofra Bakery & Cafe.
What industry is Sofra Bakery & Cafe in?
Sofra Bakery & Cafe's product category is Bakery & Cafe. Its primary akta.pro industry code is THAFAFAG, Cafe-Bakeries (Bakery + Coffee/Foodservice), with a secondary code of THAFAFAJ, Ethnic & Regional Bakeries (e.g., Middle Eastern, Asian, Latin). Its NAICS code is 311811 and its SIC code is 5812.