It’s Wednesday morning, and loaves of pitalka bread are already flying off the shelves of European Bakery and Deli.
On May 20, the family-owned business celebrated their 20th year on 17th Avenue S.W. by opening their new storefront and it is already seeing high foot traffic.
At the front serving customers, Aulona Duraj is taking orders and ringing people up behind the counter.
In the back, her father Shaqir is responsible for creating all of their handmade bread and spinning the dough of their famous burek, a thin pie-style pastry with a filling, while her mother Luma bakes fresh cakes.
Whether you are a regular or new customer, everyone is treated like family, said Aulona.
Last year, the family discussed their plans and decided to nearly double their space to allow for more production and host a new front-of-house area.
Aulona said she worked on the design of the new space with her sister, Gona.
On the walls in the seating area, there are framed photos of Luma and Shaqir working in Kosovo and even birthday photos of Aulona and her sister.
Even the flooring was made to resemble what was there before the renovation.
Although they did not realize how difficult the construction would be, they feel like all of their work reflects the family’s journey.
“I feel like it was a really beautiful way to tie everything together, and the fact that it came into the time when we were right around the 20-year anniversary, it worked out really, really beautifully,” Luma said.
After opening their new space, Luma said she recently reconnected with a customer she made a wedding cake for years ago.
“His son is getting engaged, and I thought that he must be kidding,” Luma said with a laugh. “It was the moment that I felt like, wow, am I that old?”
Starting over with what they learned
A photo of Shaqir Duraj hangs on the wall in his European Bakery and Deli.
The Durajs were refugees from Kosovo who moved to Calgary in 1999.
Luma and Shaqir were bakers from the Has region of their homeland, where they learned their craft from their parents.
Shaqir and Luma are so skilled they can tell when the mixer is done just by listening, or if the sponge of a cake is not right from 15 feet away.
“We didn’t go to school to learn or do courses on this stuff,” Luma said. “Who else better to teach you than mom?”
Before their location on 17th, Shaqir began selling burek out of a small coffee shop inside Westbrook Mall.
Through sponsors and their support system that brought them to Calgary, they learned about the Beltline and decided to set up shop at their current location.
Risking it all
Shaqir said he still remembers the conversation with his lawyer after he put their home up as collateral for the business loan.
“He said, ‘If you go down, you go down, you really go down, (and) they’re going to take your house and everything,’ and I said, ‘Well, go big or go home,’” Shaqir said.
The family chose the location after seeing the foot traffic during the Flames’ playoff run in 2004.
Although they didn’t have hockey back home, seeing and being part of the Red Mile reminded them of home.
“It felt like home in the sense that there’s people out on the streets because that’s not the vibe here in Calgary,” Aulona said. “You’ve got Stephen Avenue and you’ve got 17th Avenue, maybe Kensington but that’s not like we live in Signal Hill. You see people in herds walking down the street and we miss that because that’s a big part of the culture back home, where people are out every night.”
After opening their doors on March 20, 2006, Aulona said her parents would work multiple jobs while also working at the bakery to support their family.
“They really risked our childhoods and because they weren’t really around very much,” Aulona said. “We’re three sisters, (and) we all grew up here at the bakery.”
From helping out in the morning to going on wholesale runs for ingredients, Aulona said everyone in the family worked really hard because they knew it would eventually pay itself off in the long term.
Aulona Duraj cuts a burek, a traditional Balkan meat pie.
At one point, Shaqir said he worked for 34 hours non-stop.
“There’s nobody else to bake, (and) there’s nobody else to do all the things,” Shaqir said. “Because you can’t hire people when you don’t know if you’re going to be able to pay them, right?”
Since then, the family has grown up with the community, and everyone from every quadrant of the city drops in.
Their bakery also bakes the bread that is served in several hotels across Calgary, and used in sandwiches made in Spolombos and Lina’s Italian Market.
They pride themselves on creating everything fresh, which always starts at night, so everything can be baked in the morning.
Their famous burek can only be made by Shaqir, her uncle, and her cousin Nick, Aulona said.
“If you came in for a night of production, you’d be shocked at what we’re pumping out in that little tiny kitchen,” she said.
Down the road, Aulona said she hopes to see her parents retire, but they don’t think they are ready to hang up their aprons any time soon.
Although they are looking into opening new stores in other parts of the city, 17th Avenue will always be their home.
“People know us, we know that they’ll come here, and we’ve been here forever,” Aulona said. “I’m hoping that in 20 years from now, I’m still gonna have all of these incredible recipes and the quality will still be there, but hopefully we’ll have a couple other locations as well.”