As an American in Turkey, itโs hard not to see similarities between Istanbulโs Kadฤฑkรถy district and Brooklyn. Both municipalities lie due east of their larger metropoleโs historic city center. Both are separated by a body of waterโIstanbulโs Bosphorus Strait to New Yorkโs East River. And both are, wellโcool.
The comparison, of course, is extremely anachronistic.ย Kadฤฑkรถy was founded as the city of Chalcedon in 685 BCE. As the modern city of Istanbul spilled out of the walls of Constantinople and engulfed the surrounding areas, ancient Chalcedon became one of the 31 municipalities that ย made up the greater metropolitan area. Today, Kadฤฑkรถy serves as the main transit and cultural hub for Istanbulโs Anatolian side. The district has long been popular with Istanbulโs artists, minorities, and expatriates. Perhaps it shouldnโt be surprising that Kadฤฑkรถy is now home to a staggering concentration of specialty coffee shops, too.
With their quaint letter-board menus, decorative plants, and marble countertops, the cafes of Kadฤฑkรถy are very much in line with the cultural zeitgeist. But one of Kadฤฑkรถyโs newest coffee shops is striving to break from the mold and offer a different sort of coffee experience.
โI donโt want to call my guest โguests,โ I want to call them family,โ insists Nisan Aฤca, founder of the emphatically namedย Fam Coffee Family.
Itโs is the first cafe venture from the three-time Turkish Barista Champion, the culmination of a rather unlikely journey into coffee retail for the software-engineer-turned-coffee-consultant.
โI had this idea to have a small place, not a normal coffee shopโmore like an experiential tasting room,โ says Aฤca. โI wanted to evoke some emotions.โ
Aฤca’s philosophy is reflected in the layout of the shop and the furnishings. Most notably, Fam eschews typical cafe seating for a softer approach.
โWe donโt have any chairs,โ says Aฤca, โYou donโt sit on chairs at home. You sit on a sofa.โ
Also missing is one of the main fixtures of most coffee shops: the bar. Instead, customers at Fam find themselves in the thick of things. Without a physical barrier between the baristas and guests, the intimacy is disarming.
โWe have an open bar. We want to work in a transparent way. If something goes wrong, they can see.โ Aฤca says.
The menu at Fam is unapologetically focused on serving unique, high-scoring microlots, brewed by the cup with a variety of manual brew methods. When I visit, that includes an anaerobic Gesha from La Palma & El Tucรกn in Colombia and a washed Gesha from Janson Coffee Farm in Panama, brewed with a Hario V60 with an immersion switch attachment.
If these sound like coffees one might encounter in a barista competition, they exemplify Aฤcaโs unorthodox journey into specialty coffee retailโa journey thatย started when Aฤca, unimpressed with local supermarket brands, turned to the internet to learn more about coffee.
โI thought it should taste better,โ says Aฤca. โI found alt.coffee and coffeed.com and saw the term โspecialty coffeeโ and I became more interested.โ
An online order from Englandโs Hasbean Coffeeโpreground for French pressโwas enough to turn Aฤcaโs curiosity into an obsession.
โI was working [at] a startup. All of the money I got, I was spending on coffee equipment,โ he says.
In 2014, a friend told Aฤca about the Turkish Barista Championship. Aฤca attended the competition
as a spectator, but left confident that he could win if he competed.ย Despite having no professional barista experience, Aฤca entered the 2015 Turkish championship and came in second. The finish only served to fuel a competitive spirit.
Aฤca returned to the 2016 competition, and this time won, earning the right to represent Turkey at the World Barista Championship in Dublin. Aฤca prepared for the word championship with the same confidence and tenacity, but realized it was a different ball game when he arrived in Ireland and saw that other competitors had entire support teams. He placed 37th out of 61 competitors that year.
โI was devastated after the competition. Like everyone, I had high hopes, โ says Aฤca. But the disappointment didnโt dampen Aฤcaโs drive.ย He would go on to win the Turkish championship again in 2017 and 2019, separated by a second-place finish in 2018. At the 2019 WBC in Boston, Aฤca would take 17th place, narrowly missing the cutoff for semi-finals. By far, it was the highest ranking earned by a Turkish Barista Champion yet.
Aฤca was then able to leverage his competitive success to pursue a new career. He quit his job and started his own coffee consulting business, and eventuallyย landed a gig serving coffee at a trade show. The client told him to expect around 300 people per day. He ended up serving more than 1,000 cups that day, andย left the trade show with dozens of new contacts. Soon, Aฤca was doing coffee events around the world, traveling as far afield as Russia, Croatia, India, and El Salvador.ย โOne job created another and then another,โ he says.
Even though Aฤca enjoyed the nearly constant travel, over time he began to want to put down roots.ย Each trip gave him the opportunity to encounter different coffee cultures. The influences can be seen in the small details at Fam. The open bar layout was modeled on the original Coffee Collective in Copenhagen. Writing the daily specials directly on the walls was inspired by Friedhats in Amsterdam.
Aฤca also hopes the cafe will also serve as a sort of advertisement for his SCA courses. Previously, Aฤca operated a training lab in the Anatolian suburb Bostancฤฑ where he taught the barista skills and brewing courses in the SCAโs coffee skills program. With the opening of Fam, Aฤca moved his training lab to the first floor located immediately above the cafe. Aฤca is hopeful the central location will make his courses more accessible to a wider audienceโa family he never would have had as a software engineer.
โI was writing code,” says Aฤca. “I never thought I would open a coffee shop one day.”
Michael Butterworth is a coffee educator and consultant based in Istanbul, Turkey.ย Read more Michael Butterworth for Sprudge.