Tuesday 28 Oct: Turkish cafes

Philip Jones, East End painter and poet, has decided to move from his current studio, located in the artist centre of Vyner Street, to Dalston in pursuit of a greater proximity to the ready supply of Turkish Cuisine.

On Tuesday 28th of October 2008, he counted the number of Turkish cafes, restaurants, food shops and private clubs between the Rio Cinema and Arcola Street:




131 Kingsland High Street: ÖMINE Restaurant [fireplace or grate]
144 Kingsland High Street: Ali Baba Restaurant
6 Crossway: UMUT 2000 OCAKBASI [Umut: hope, expectation, wish, promise; ocakbasi: chimney corner]



4 Stoke Newington Road: Mangal II [Mangal: barbecue, brazier]
8 Stoke Newington Road: Fenerbahçe Social Club
9 Stoke Newington Road: ISTANBUL ISKEMBECISI [Iskembecisi, I think means tripe seller!]
14 Stoke Newington Road: Hasan Meze and Mangal
17 Stoke Newington Road: TAVA Restaurant [Tava: pan or frying pan]
27 Stoke Newington Road: MANGAL Pide and Lahmacun
30-32 Stoke Newington Road: TU_RA Patisserie Baklava Specialist [sultan's signature]
34 'Stoke Newington Road: 19 NUMARA BOS CIRRIK'
10 Arcola Street: Mangal Ocakbasi:

Ercan owns manages, cooks, and waiters at Mangal seven days a week having inherited the business from his father who opened the restaurant 19 years ago on what was then an undiscovered street full of working factory buildings.

Soon there were queues around the block, as Ercan comments ‘the street was bad but the food was good,’ and Mangal has now built a reputation for serving the best Turkish food in the area. Again in Ercan’s words ‘ there is Coca Cola and there are many other brands, at Mangal we serve Coca Cola’

Mangal is now a world famous restaurant, reviewed in ‘Time Out’, The Evening Standard’, ‘The Times’, and Internationally.

In the recently expanded premises, up to 250 people can be served, either eat in or takeaway, in a busy hour. In Ercan’s estimation between Mangal, the Cash and Carry opposite, and the Arcola theatre up to 5,000 people visit the street in a week.

Among his regular customers he notes a couple from Kilderry in Ireland who visit once every two weeks, members of the Turkish community from Harringey and Palmers Green, members of the Indian community from Ealing and Tooting, and local people from Dalston, Shoreditch and Angel.

As a local business he uses the Cash and Carry opposite, as well as shipping some ingredients straight from Turkey, he comments 'Dalston is like paradise, there is everything you need here, shops, restaurants, cinema, theatre all within a stones throw’.

Over the years the main problems he has faced have been from local gangs, and the ‘drug house’ opposite making the street unsafe.

If the street were to change now he would like to see better parking provision down one side, and a cleaner safer environment, including better rubbish collection.

Acknowledging that, even with things as they are, Mangal is one of Dalstons key visitor attractions.




Miller's Mews: Bozhüyük Spor Kulubu [something about sport..]
Miller's Mews:LONDRA BOZCADER DAYANISMA DERNEGI [London something solidarity association/ fellowship]
Miller's Mews: HUNDERED FLOWERS CULTURAL CENTRE

Stopping off in the two supermarkets on Shacklewell Lane to look at all the produce.