Spasia Pandora Dinkovski calls time on her Mystic Burek cafe after four years
Launched in the midst of the pandemic in Sydenham, the restaurant takes its name from a Macedonian filo pie that typically contains ground meat and cheese.
Writing on Instagram, Pandora Dinkovski - whose longing for her grandma’s cooking saw her create a supper club, delivery service and, latterly, a BYOB cafe - admitted she had been “having a tough time”.
“The truth is, I never wanted a shop, I just needed a base that didn’t come with the price tag of a commercial kitchen. I slipped into the pressures of the ‘formula’ rather than sticking to what I do best, which is thinking outside of the box.”
“Since day one with this business, I have been fighting against a system that’s just not built for people like me, a system that has little interest in nurturing independents but instead, forcing the food industry into pure consumerism and capitalist ideals, clashing with the values l’ve always stuck to.”
“Sure it’s busy but a lot has changed in a year, l’m a different person with different priorities and if I’m not tending to them, then what’s the point?”
Pandora Dinkovski - who recently released her debut cookbook - finished by saying that the Mystic Burek brand “going absolutely nowhere” and that a new plan had been put in place.
“I’ve got so so much more up my sleeve, with more news on this coming soon,” she said.
Mystic Burek is set to close at the end of the month.
