Celebrated Turkish Chef Selin Kiazim Replaces Fitzrovia Restaurant With Bakery

Selin Kiazim, head chef and co-owner of Shoreditch’s modern Turkish grill Oklava, is turning her soon-to-close Fitzrovia Anatolian restaurant Kyseri into a bakery and wine.

Together with business partner Laura Christie, Kiazim will open Oklava Bakery + Wine in late January on Grafton Way. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus Saturday brunch, the bakery will draw on elements from Kyseri (which was hailed as operating at “a new level” after it opened last summer), the original Oklava in Shoreditch and Oklava at Arcade, Tottenham Court Road, as well as showcasing family recipes. As well as Turkish bakes, there’ll be a daily-changing pasta, such as beef and sour cherry manti, and pide specials. Dishes will include:

• From the bakery, baharat-spiced bread, bagel-shaped simit topped with sesame seeds, a daily-changing börek, and poğaça, a brioche-type bun.
• For breakfast, breads with medjool date butter, menemen, broken eggs and house-cured pastirma, and a full Turkish breakfast.
• For lunch and dinner, tepsi kebab (spiced beef and lamb kofte) with house bread and chopped salad, toasted chickpea sourdough and grilled cheese, and mücver (potato, pastirma and cheese fritters).

Some dishes will be available to take away, plus there’ll be an online pre-order service for baked goods, and a grocery section will sell hot and cold drinks, wine, bread, pastries, sandwiches and salads, plus store cupboard items such as baharat, candied fruits, and olive oil.

Christie is in charge of wine and will introduce a list with options from Turkey, Armenia, Lebanon, Georgia, and Greece — all focusing on small, regional producers. All wines are available by the glass.

The kitchen has been redesigned to fit a large deck oven plus a new chiller room to prove the vast amount of dough overnight. Kiazim and Christie have today launched a Kickstarter to raise £10,000 for the renovations.