We recently connected with Adam Pusateri and have shared our conversation below.

Adam, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The idea originated from wanting to make an elevated sandwich shop as our first impression in Annapolis, which then led to the idea of making all of our own bread for the sandwiches which then lead into baking other items besides bread and alas we land at InGrano Bistro Bakery! I couldn’t decide which ethnicity I really wanted to highlight having an Italian background, a Greek partner, and being trained culinarily in classical French so we decided in using a Latin name that could cover all of the basis and any inspirations that we had. I have worked in a few Japanese restaurants as well so that comes into play but really we wanted o bring something unique to Annapolis that would offer a taste of many different cuisines from around the world and what sandwiches/pastries they eat. We plan to grow many more concepts in the area that also use this mindset!

Adam, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The brand is new and ever evolving but I come largely from a catering background in Las Vegas where the high demand of tourism requires a vast knowledge of different cuisines and techniques. I think this allows us to keep up with the evolution of our agriculture and drive to be as sustainable as we can with the ingredients we purchase. Changing the menu often is something that allows us to pivot with what the farmers are growing that particular month and keeps things exciting for us! Covid made it pretty difficult on farmers and they are still recovering from it, so trying to support them in any way we can is our mission. We have partnered with a few farms in buying their produce, to hosting their CSA pickup at the bakery itself. We also provide product like pizza dough to the farmers markets so that they can showcase their product on a finished food for sale. Annapolis is slowly growing in terms of its offerings but still has a lot of room for new and exciting concepts that bring another cuisine to a place that has people from all around the world. The Naval Academy and Sailing really brings in people from all over so I think that diverse crowd appreciates what we are trying to do.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

To be honest we are still recovering from Covid. We were not yet open and actually about to be in construction phase when covid hit so we didn’t have a seasoned staff to help transition into a to-go model and we had no idea of how to market a new restaurant opening in the midst of a world pandemic were public gatherings were prohibited.

We signed on the space in January and aimed to start construction March 1st, the same date I arrived in Annapolis from Las Vegas. 9 days later the world shut down, meaning the sign off from the health department could not happen to begin construction and we were stuck paying our lease for 6 months without being able to do any work. It was awful and a very painful way to start this project but by the time Thanksgiving came around we barely were able to have a modified opening to try and capture some business from the holiday and having a grand opening in December of 2020. The next 2 years we were in survival mode and were doing anything and everything to try and convince people to come to work in a restaurant when the most people that was the last place they wanted to be exposed to. I haven’t counted but the amount of staff we hired trained and then had to move or wanted to stay home or left the industry all together during that time was unprecedented. It was a struggle but I am amazed that we are here and the support we have had from the area. The end of 2022 we began to see more applications coming back in and are seeing more optimism in terms of working in restaurants again. We hope to build a strong team and to continue to grow the brand in the area and to offer many more concepts

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe our reputation has been built on our unique offerings and elevated presentation of them. Luckily my wife has a marketing background and really helped us get off the ground via social media presence. My business partner Pericles came from a film background and also created elaborate stories via newsletter, of what was happening behind the scenes giving patrons a unique look into the staff working at InGrano.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ingranobakery.com
• Instagram: ingrano_annapolis