“We like the sea and the lake,” says Özkan Yilmaz, the owner of Turkitch, a new café in Lakeview just a half-mile from the second largest body of water in the Americas. That’s why he reckons so many Turks choose to live in the neighborhood, and why, consequently, there are so many Turkish restaurants there, from Pera Turkish Kitchen to Cafe Orchid to ZiZi’s and more.
Anyone who’s ever stood in line for doner (or al pastor, or shawarma) understands what a grave disappointment it is to approach a glistening, sizzling, spinning monument of meat, only to be served old scraps that had been previously set aside for expediency, maybe even only minutes before. You can’t easily see the doner spinning at Istanbul Grill, around the corner and up a couple blocks on Clark Street, a small storefront with more tables and a much broader menu. When I visited one early weekday afternoon I might not have ordered it if I’d seen it first. It was the more common lamb and veal variety, but though the sandwich was (uncommonly) built on a nicely crusty section of baguette, the meat was dry and tough and a chore to get through. Closer inspection behind the counter revealed why: the cone had been whittled down to a gray nubbin, something that couldn’t have happened in the short period of time they’d been open that day.
You can finish whatever you’re eating at these new Turkish restaurants with hot slurps of Turkish coffee, but maybe the most transporting version of this can be found in Logan Square at Four Letter Word, the second location of an Istanbul roaster and café, opened by Whiner Beer‘s Ria Neri and high school chum Eylem Ozkaya. Four Letter Word offers “Turkish style” coffee in pretty porcelain cups, without the standard formal presentation, but brewed with the outstanding single-origin Brazilian beans they’re roasting at their facility at the Plant in Back of the Yards. It’s pretty far from the water, but not far off from what you’d drink in Turkey. v
Turkitch Kitchen | $ 565 W. Diversey 773-453-3323turkitch.us
Ali Baba Doner | $ 545 W. Diversey 312-823-7716alibabadoner.business.site
Istanbul Grill | $$ 3037 N. Clark 773-698-6995myistanbulgrill.com
Café Istanbul | $$$ 2014 W. Division 773-661-9487mycafeistanbul.com
Four Letter Word | $ 3022 W. Diversey 773-360-89324lwcoffee.com
