Prodromou 51, Strovolos, 22270477, LEFKOSIA (NICOSIA)
Mon – Fri 7.30am – 8pm, Sat 7.30am – 2pm, Sun Closed. 
It has been a long time since I have discovered something new in the food and entertainment space that wasn’t a restaurant or a bar. Qboo is not only new as a shop, but also as a concept.
Cornelius Schulze-Kraft, a baker of German origin has managed to bring to Cyprus his local knowledge with a New York flare and has used it to make delicious bread.
I was originally intrigued by his ciabatta sticks that I had the pleasure of tasting at a “cheese and wine” event. Even though I (unsuccessfully) try to follow the “no white bread” diet I couldn’t help but break it once again at his super cute and rustic bakery. The moment I stepped in and smelled the freshly baked bread I didn’t even need to taste anything to know that this would be special.
Although tiny, the content of the bakery is more than enough with a wide selection of bread from all over the world. Apart from village-style organic bread he makes authentic German pretzels, the typical German bread, Bauernbrot, fantastic, super soft Italian Ciabatta, crispy French Fougasse, and of course original American bagels. Zero additives and preservatives are used in all his bread. It doesn’t get more home made as everything is prepared by himself at his bakery daily. What I found out later was that the technique Cornelius uses is in a way traditional combined with some ground breaking methods procedure for each bread, even on an artisanal level world wide. Every bread is made from scratch including different blends of flour (in certain breads as many as 5 different types
flour are used). The simplest bread will take as long as 24 hours to make, most breads however could take a minimum of 2 days including pre-doughs. Certain breads could take as long as 4 days (!!), including an actual 20+ hour bake in the oven. For example a simple baguette takes a minimum of 36 hours and is bakes at a temperature of 280C. What is even better is that all the left overs are taken to foster homes where children of all ages get to enjoy home made healthy bread.
At first I thought it was strange having a bakery selling only bread, as in Cyprus bakeries offer a selection of pastries, sweets, biscuits, cakes (not to mention cereal, cold dairy and soft drinks), but this is exactly why everything turns out to be a big mass production. In the future there might be some German pastry and American classic additions (Cornelius did, afterall, live in New York city for 15 years), but the benefits of specialization and originality will certainly remain.