Prantl's has new owner, plans new location in North Huntingdon

The last five years have been quite a ride for those baking Prantl’s famous Burnt Almond Torte — also known as “the greatest cake America has ever made.”

The Huffington Post made that declaration in 2014, a year before a string of new developments at the business, which now has changed hands again. New owner Joe Cugliari, a North Huntingdon resident, bought the bakery in October and is close to opening a new location in his hometown.

“North Huntingdon has been growing for the past 10 years and continues to do so,” Cugliari said. “The other factor is that this pandemic is making people stay closer to home and buy more things in their own area.”

Why invest in such a venture now?

“It’s a good business, during the pandemic and post pandemic,” Cugliari said. “It’s a business where people come in, and they’re happy. Prantl’s has a good reputation.”

The North Huntingdon location will be at the corner of Route 30 and Robbins Station Road. Demographics, exposure and area incomes factored into the decision.

“We just felt that that area was a good area for a bakery,” said Cugliari, who has an MBA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

He said he has consulted with restaurants and, at one point, provided computer systems to bakeries.

“In some ways it helps, in other ways it’s better not to know a whole lot so you don’t have the blinders on,” he said of not having experience as a bakery owner. “You’re coming in with a fresh perspective. … Everything is a balance.”

The North Huntingdon location will join three others across the region: the original Shadyside bakery, one in Market Square in Downtown Pittsburgh and a Greensburg retail shop and production facility.

Prantl’s flagship Shadyside location has been open for decades, operating in the German tradition making old-fashioned fruit Danish, nut-filled coffee cakes and more — including the torte that has made them famous.

Henry Prantl started the business in 1966, with the Walnut Street location now having housed a bakery for more than 100 years. The iconic torte was born after Prantl attended a baking convention in California in the 1960s.

“The burnt almond cake, I actually got the idea from a baker in Anaheim, California,” Prantl told the Tribune-Review in 2018 while attending the opening of the Greensburg location. He retired in 2007.

Prantl’s Bakery expanded into Greensburg in May 2018, after local resident John Felice bought the business three years earlier.

At the time the Greensburg location opened at 612 Grove St., Felice said demand for Prantl’s products — especially its burnt almond torte — was so high that the Shadyside and Market Street locations couldn’t bake them fast enough.

In addition to functioning as a regular bakery, the Greensburg location also supplemented the Pittsburgh stores while serving as a “test kitchen” for new recipes. The Greensburg and Shadyside bakeries, both of which have production facilities, will supply the North Huntingdon store.

In his short stint as owner, Cugliari said he has noticed people are having orders shipped rather than coming in person during the coronavirus pandemic. Those requests have increased during the holiday season.

Cugliari said he hopes to open the North Huntingdon store before Christmas.

“We’ll see if it happens,” he said.

Moving forward, Cugliari said he hopes to open additional locations, though he did not disclose where. He also plans to add new products to the bakery’s offerings while tweaking some existing ones.

Don’t fret: The burnt almond torte is among the items that will be left alone.

“There’s a big following for them, so we’re not going to change anything there,” he said. “We want to continue the tradition.”