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Sofra Kolonjare, traditional oasis among fabulous nature

2023-11-17 19:48:00, Qyteti im CNA

For centuries, Cologne has been left in oblivion, but in recent years, the southeast district has seen an increase in local and foreign tourists, who choose to see the tourist assets that this area offers. An important role in tourist development has been played by "Sofra Kolonjare", a very special hotel and restaurant that offers organic food, amidst fabulous nature. Sofra Kolonjare is located just a few kilometers from the city of Korça, while it is the only stop on the Korça-Ersekë road segment that offers accommodation, food and fresh air.

This investment started years ago by the two brothers Xheni and Edlir Bilo, with great difficulty they managed to create an oasis of tradition.

"First of all, I want to thank you for this interview because it is known that promotion is what has raised us in the field of tourism, different are the big villages like Voskopoja and Dardha, we are alone here in Cologne. To become important being alone is from good friends like your work, but also from customers who pass on good words to each other.

Sofra Kolonjare, traditional oasis among fabulous nature

The idea started with the fact that our father worked with wood for 40 years, and our first business was processing wood. There came a point when this work was becoming difficult due to strict rules, and today we are talking about the matter coming from Greece. One beautiful day they brought us up here and we thought of making a bar, and we have made the table all characteristic with the three wooden floors. We saw the country 18 years ago, when most people thought we were crazy, as it was unimaginable to have a good business, and here we are today."

The owner of the coffee shop, Edlir Bilo, tells about the vicissitudes they encountered when they took the first steps of the business.

"The beginning was not difficult, but terrible, it is known that when a business is opened, especially in Cologne, as an area that has been forgotten and abandoned for years. Meat has been and is the main barometer that has the greatest weight of turnover, it costs more because some dairy products do not spoil, while when a heifer was matured and half a kilo was sold a day, or there were days when it was not sold at all. What happened? Telling your parents that this meat is not good after 2-3 days has passed, is not we have never done. We used to cut the heifer, divide it into 4-5 kg, into 7 pieces, and give it to people in need. The meat was not inedible for us to understand, since you can still consume it after 7 days. But the negative words came out, as if the meat was left and was not consumed. Then we threw the meat that was left to the river, with hundreds of lambs.

One thing we never forgive and never tolerate is quality. There is no question of using canned sauce, because it is known that people come here for the village and organic foods. We have an area of ??about 2 hectares that we have planted vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, normal beans and plantains, on the lands we have rented. We also have a farm where we keep chickens, goats, sheep and horses. So we are a closed cycle, since we only received salt, sugar and coffee from the outside."

At the Cologne table, the quality of the food is absolute. Edliri shows the viewers of City News Albania the products that can be consumed, offering the true taste of the village. Among the products he mentions are kulachi in a wood oven, cabbage in saç, dairy products, then drinks such as homemade wine and brandy, and finally various jams with all kinds of fruits.

"Our kitchen doesn't have a chef, it's the same as going for dinner at home. There's that pepper with sauce, the house cheese, the kulak that's baked in a wood oven, the flour that's ground in the water mill that we have, for the lakroi too. We have meat from Gramozi, which is known to be among the best in terms of quality. It is home cooking, of absolute quality, and that is why we are who we are today.

Sofra Kolonjare, traditional oasis among fabulous nature

I wanted to say that we also have drinks such as wine and brandy that we produce ourselves, we get the grapes from Leskovik because in Kolonje the grapes do not ripen properly due to the altitude over 1000 meters. The variety we use is Mavrudi, it is a bit expensive as a grape because it costs up to 1200 old lek per kg, and it produces a super quality wine. We also have the compotes section, which are from all soft and wild fruits such as cherries, quinces, plums, and mixes such as thana, cullumbria, wild apples which are highly preferred. We have all kinds of jams, such as blackberry, cherry, wild fig, but what customers are most surprised by is the pumpkin jam, which very few people understand."

The entire environment of Sofra Kolonjare is of traditional style, with a 3-story building with a wooden structure and many old and unique objects that add to the authenticity of this place.

"We are two brothers, my brother Jenny is also there, and we complement each other and I think that this has influenced the success story of sofra. We were students in high school, and before we went home, when we had lek left , we had a passion to enter the old bazaar of Korça "head on" and buy old objects. I'm telling you a case, with old trays that were 200 years old, maybe even more, they were also taken by those who they were collecting scrap. It was a great car that was going for scrap, and it is very painful to sell all those objects for scrap. We have been able to collect as much as we could.

They have asked me to take it and thank you for asking me this question because I want to clarify once and for all those who are curious. There may be objects here that are unique, and if I gave them to people, there would be nothing left. Despite the fact that in some cases we have been offered scary figures, we have not done anything to sell to you. It's a tradition for us that what goes into mahogany, stays in mahogany."

Sofra Kolonjare, traditional oasis among fabulous nature

Most of the visitors to "Sofra Kolonjare" are foreigners, and this shows that the image of Albania has changed. Tourists have discovered a different Albania, full of values ??and special places to visit.

"The tourists who visit Sofra, maybe 50% or more are German tourists. Italians have also been coming for almost 2 years, then the rest are Czechs, Poles, Swiss, Austrians. Even from New Zealand, few in number but they come from every country in the world. Albania is no longer that scary country. I ask all tourists to get their impressions at the end for sure. Every conversation we've had has shown that they imagined Albania differently and it came out of every kind of forecast and most of them think to return again within the year. I think this is something extraordinary. Albania has all the good things, but also having competitors like Greece, Montenegro, Croatia that have developed tourism over time, while we have developed recently. And I see that our country will be a country that will sustain the economy from tourism. In addition to the mahogany employees, we also have almost 50 families that we cooperate with, that are indirectly related to us, somewhere we get heifers, milk somewhere, and we keep an area alive."

During our stay near the Cologne table, we met a family of tourists who did not hesitate to give their impressions to City News ALBANIA about the environment and the food they tried.

Seeing the development that the Kolonje area has received, the Sofra investors saw the possibility of expanding the accommodation facilities, where, in addition to the current 7 rooms, 8 more rooms were added. The need to be close to visitors made the two brothers build another hotel on the hill. Another innovation that Sofra Kolonjare is expected to bring is the SPA, which will be used mostly in the winter season, to offer visitors a unique experience.

Sofra Kolonjare, traditional oasis among fabulous nature

"We started it as an investment in the month of January, and it was closed in record time for almost 7 months, with a construction area of ??600m2, thanks to the support of the government and the AZHBR, which gave us a significant amount of help, but also the moment that we it was absolutely necessary because in the current hotel we have 7 rooms and the number of tourists is increasing every year. What I wanted to emphasize is that we are really talking about organic food, but there is also something that those who are used to luxury, even the conditions, want as much as possible. good. From our side alone it was impossible to cope with the increase in prices, and thank you that the construction of the hotel became possible. We chose to switch a little to luxury agrotourism, because we have average conditions here, while in the hotel we have recently released 3 suites, with 45 m2, 3 junior suites with 30 m2 and 2 standard rooms with 24 m2 surface area. The lower part is designed to have a small conference room, to be used by different companies that book for 2 or 3 nights. We want to use the -1st floor for SPA facilities, since in times of frost, snow and rain, the day is completely limited and customers have nothing to visit, such as the part of the forest for hiking, or even the very beautiful path that we have back here to leads to the lake. And we thought this would be very popular with customers.

Throughout the supervision of the project, every material has been thrown 2-3 times the normal value, only the sleeping beds are all walnut wood which costs a lot. The mattresses are of absolute quality, among the best in the market, 99% of the furniture is stone and wood, and the sheets and towels are Italian. We have chosen a super standard, and we have average and above average customers, and for the latter we have had customers who slept in Pogradec and came to eat at the Cologne table."

Sofra Kolonjare is located on the national axis Korçë - Erseke, at the 20th kilometer. For all viewers who are interested in making a reservation near this hotel, City News Albania made available the phone number +355693623108.

Along with Korça, Cologne is turning into one of the southeast destinations that is preferred to be visited by tourists. The quiet nature, the greenery, the villages of the area remain the favorites of visitors./ CNA