Anatolia Grill and Bar, Turkish Cuisine

Kazandibi

24. Do you have many customers who come to Anatolia because they want to learn about Turkish food?

They do more and more now, but for a long time we had people who would come and just stick with the Italian dishes and the pasta. Many people have never really tried Turkish food and aren't familiar with some of the strange names. And sometimes people just have favorite Italian dishes and don't want to try anything else. But we encourage them and tell them that if they like our Italian food they will really love some of our Turkish and Mediterranean food too. If people show an interest then our servers always try to educate them about the different types of Turkish foods we make. We find that once people give one of our Turkish dishes a try then it's not difficult to get them to try more things. We have a lot of regular customers who come in now just to try the different things they've never had before.

25. Where do you get your recipes from?

They are from my husband but based on classic recipes. In Turkey everyone has their own way of making things, even kebabs. Nobody does things the same way. So my husband has developed his own style from what he has learned over the years. In Turkey the food can be spicy so one thing we've done is to lower the level of spice for an American audience. When we first started we had the same level of spice as in Turkey but people were telling us it was too strong for them. It was never really, really spicy but people let us know that they like a certain amount of spice so we've adjusted for that. If someone asks for more spice we can make it in the traditional way for them.



Mixed Grill of Kebabs

26. Can you tell us about the bar side of Anatolia?

The bar is there for people who want to have a drink or glass of wine with supper. We have live piano music every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6 - 9pm, so the bar also provides a nice place where you can relax with a drink and enjoy the music on those evenings.

27. Have you had any big surprises since you've taken over things at Anatolia?

When we first bought the restaurant our servers told us that the summer would be very slow in Jacksonville and that made me a little nervous. But this past July and August have been very busy, so that's a relief and a good surprise. I think that when people heard that the owners had changed they treated us almost like a new restaurant and were curious to come by to see what we were doing. We have a big emphasis on fresh and home made food so I think people have been pleasantly surprised and have been coming back regularly to try different things on our menu.



Baklava

28. What's your plan for Anatolia?

We are really new right now. We want to see how our level of business will work out. We've seen a very good response but we don't know if that's because we're new. If business continues to be good we'd like to eventually open another restaurant on Beach Boulevard or a location like that. If we do that we will also name the new restaurant Anatolia Grill and Bar and serve similar food as we have here.


Sazi and Helin Ercan





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