Blue's becomes first Albanian and Kosovan restaurant in Portsmouth after opening in Osborne Road

The News, Portsmouth

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00:00First of all, if you wouldn't mind just introducing yourself and where we are today.

00:04Yes, my name is Katarina Azimi and I'm from Kosovo and I moved to the UK 10 years ago.

00:11And we're in Blues, the new restaurant on Osborne Road.

00:14Yes, yes.

00:16So when did that open?

00:17It opened in March, 8th of March and I'm just trying, you know, for people to get to know what kind of food it is.

00:27You know, it's something different.

00:28Yes, so it's Albanian food, is that right?

00:31Yes, it's Albanian food but it's a mixture because I'm from Kosovo so we've got a bit of Kosovo.

00:36Because we are near Greece, Italy, so it's got a bit of everything.

00:41So for people that don't know what kind of food it is, it's quite Mediterranean style in a way.

00:46Yes, so what we do here, we do pastries that we do ourselves.

00:50Roll it in the air, which is called burek.

00:53So we do traditional food which is tava, elbasan tava.

00:58It's like lamb and yogurt.

01:02We do stuffed cabbage.

01:05We do proper traditional, authentic food.

01:08Yes, so is that kind of, and what's the reaction?

01:10Because they say March 8th, so it's been a little while now.

01:14How's the response been from customers?

01:16We've got very good reviews.

01:17People are finding very interesting flavours, interesting food.

01:21And we had a lot of support from Salsic groups.

01:24And we have got some events now with them.

01:27So yes, they are finding very tasty and good.

01:32Okay, what type of events you say you've got?

01:35Yes, so we had an event, it was with Creative Social Group.

01:39So they did support us and we supported them.

01:41So they meet up and they share their creativity.

01:44They talk about social media and all the sources, art.

01:48And we have one hour and second of August that is booked.

01:52It is for bisexual event to meet up.

01:55So this kind of people are, you know.

01:58Yes, fantastic.

02:00And what's kind of been the most popular dishes?

02:04Popular dishes was our Albanian breakfast.

02:07Because we were open all the day and in the evening.

02:10Okay, what's in an Albanian breakfast?

02:12In Albanian breakfast we have Albanian sausages.

02:15We've got Albanian creamy, peppery, cheese dipping.

02:19We've got feta, olives, cucumber, tomato.

02:23And we've got, I think it's called Aybar.

02:26Which is made with roast red peppers and aubergines.

02:29Okay.

02:30And you boil it for ages, ages, ages.

02:32And then it becomes that kind of creamy dip with the bread.

02:37Nice.

02:38Yes.

02:39And, so what were you doing before this?

02:41Is this your first kind of, first time you got into hospitality business?

02:45No, I used to work in hospitality.

02:47Okay.

02:48So I used to work in coffee shop.

02:50It's called Mardin, Cockney Road.

02:52Okay, yes.

02:53And then I used to work in restaurants like on weekends.

02:56But I always had passion for food to cook myself.

02:59Perfect.

03:00Yeah.

03:01So what have you got?

03:02So you've got some events lined up.

03:04In terms of the menu, does that change regularly?

03:07Yeah, I do special menu for them.

03:09But it's based on my menu.

03:11So I take a bit from day and from the evening.

03:14Yeah.

03:15And then I make a bit better price for them.

03:18So just, you know, to get people to try it and then to see what it is.

03:22Because they're a bit sceptical when it comes to trying something different.

03:26Yeah, yeah.

03:27Yeah.

03:28So yeah, obviously it's not.

03:29I guess that's kind of one of the selling points for you really.

03:32Is that there's not too many of Albanian or sort of Bosnian.

03:34No, this is the first one in Portsmouth actually.

03:36So yeah.

03:37That has been open.

03:38But let's see.

03:39Hopefully, get there.

03:41Yeah.

03:42And what would you say to kind of customers that are unsure whether to come in?

03:45What do you think they should be coming to here?

03:48Yeah, I recommend them things.

03:50And I explain to them what it is and what we use and how we do it.

03:55Because to be fair, I like olive oil.

03:58I use it from Albania.

03:59Yeah.

04:00It's pure.

04:01Like it's not processed or anything.

04:03It's pure olive oil.

04:04So I cook with that.

04:05And then I explain to them, you should try this.

04:07Try this.

04:08And sometimes I give for free little things so they can try it.

04:11Yeah.

04:12So yeah.

04:13And I've had very good feedback so far.

04:14So.

04:15Perfect.

04:16So yeah, just come in and give it a try.

04:17Yeah.

04:18See, obviously everything kind of here is kind of traditional Albanian things.

04:22And I think you've got a few wines from Albania as well.

04:24Is that right?

04:25Yeah.

04:26So the wines are actually from Kosovo.

04:27Albanian wine.

04:29Right.

04:30So they're all made in Prizren.

04:33Prizren.

04:34It's a place called Prizren.

04:35Which they grow the grapes and everything is organic.

04:38So these wines are organic.

04:40And yeah, we supported them as well.

04:44Because we couldn't provide this here.

04:46No one sells them.

04:47Right.

04:48So we called them and they were happy to sell it and to people to try it.

04:52And it actually is very good wine.

04:54And it seems people to like it.

04:57Yeah.

04:58Yeah.

04:59So what's been their kind of response been on the wine?

05:00Yeah.

05:01We've received back from this one.

05:04And that one as well.

05:06That one still hasn't been tried.

05:08And they've really loved it.

05:09Oh, okay.

05:10Yeah.

05:11And we have been asked from people that we sell it to them so they want to buy it.

05:15Oh, okay.

05:16Like from us, which we don't.

05:17Because we only provide for us.

05:18But we told them where they can get it.

05:21Yeah.

05:22Perfect.

05:23Thank you very much.

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