The Oktay family, who own three Turkish eateries and two imported goods shops in Vermont, will add a Burlington restaurant specializing in Turkish street food and flatbreads this spring, Jackie Oktay said. She and her husband, Vural, and his brother, Hasan, are hoping to open Cappadocia Bistro for lunch, dinner and late-night weekend hours by the end of March at 92 Church Street in the former home of Thorn + Roots.
“It’s a great location,” Jackie said. “It was hard to pass up.”
The new downtown restaurant will make three Church Street storefronts for the Oktays, who also own Istanbul Kebab House and their second Little Istanbul store, which opened in August.
Jackie said the 50-seat, counter-service Cappadocia Bistro will be similar to the family’s recently opened Cappadocia Café, which started serving Turkish pastries and flatbreads in White River Junction in September. The family also owns Tuckerbox and the original Little Istanbul store there.
Both Cappadocia restaurants are named for a famous volcanic valley in the Oktay brothers’ native Turkey. The centerpiece of each is a wood-fired, tiled oven, but the menu in Burlington will be slightly different, Jackie said, partly because the White River Junction café is open in the morning.
Both menus include Turkish flatbreads, such as thin lahmajun and canoe-shaped open pide with vegetable or meat toppings, as well as rolled, stuffed bafra pide. But instead of the Turkish coffee and börek served in White River Junction, Burlington’s Cappadocia will offer other street-food favorites, such as chicken doner wraps; grilled, marinated chicken wings; and baked potatoes called kumpir with an array of toppings, from olives to pickled red cabbage to sliced Turkish beef sausage.