Story

Üstad is the name of a counter in Trabzon. There is no grand founding story at the centre of it, only a habit repeated every morning: rolling the dough out by hand.

This trade offers plenty of shortcuts. You can buy the filo ready made, boil a week of syrup in one go, swap butter for something cheaper. We have taken none of them, because the moment you do, the pastry keeps its name and loses itself.

Ask us what you are buying. We are happy to talk about what happens behind the counter, since having something worth explaining is the reason we do this at all.