Tahmis Kahvesi, Gaziantep: Authentic Ottoman Cafe in the heart of a Colourful City

I must say Gaziantep is much more interesting and colourful than I had expected. Instead of 2-3 days originally planned, I ended up staying more than a week in this fascinating city. There are plenty of things to do both in and around Antep, and, unlike what some people claimed, this city of more than one million inhabitants is not dull at all.

Most visitors to Antep would head straight to the newly completed Zeugma Museum located on the side of the highway leading into downtown Antep, but being a fan of coffee culture all over the world, I decided to have a look at the Tahmis Kahvesi, a very well-known traditional turkish coffee house dated from the Ottoman era.

This beautiful Ottoman-style coffee house is located right next to the city's Dervish Lodge, within walking distance of Antep's busy coppersmith bazaar, ideal for those who need a rest and some good turkish tea after heavy-duty shoppings. 

According to the sign board outside the coffee house, this cafe was founded as early as1638, but was burnt down in a fire in 1901 and 1903, which means the current building dated from the early 20th century. I had seen photos of this cafe taken a few years ago by a local photographer friend, the interior was older , the decors were more basic and of a different colour tone than what it is now.

Apparently the cafe has undergone extensive renovations in the past few years. When I was there, it looks very well-maintained, not just tidy, but even elegant and attractive, with high ceilings, beautiful dark wood wall panels, colourful stain-glass windows and brand-new wooden tables and chairs. The whole place feels as though it could very well be a cafe in Vienna or Turin, except for the portrait of Ataturk and the bright-red Turkish flag on the wall.

The coffee house also has a half-upper floor, an enlcosed lounge for private parties behind the kitchen, as well as outdoor seatings in the small garden at the back of the building during the warm summer months.

At first I thought I would run into a place patronized mostly by tourists, but no, most of the customers are locals. This place is popular especially among the older pensioners of Antep, who would spend the whole afternoon and evenings in the cafe, playing chess, cards, backgammon, reading newspapers, or simply chatting with their friends over endless rounds of tea or coffee. Also the prices of this cafe are fairly modest compared to other establishments in the city or other Turkish cities: 1 TL for a glass of turkish tea in a traditional tulip glass. Granted, you can find cheaper tea at a tea garden somewhere else, (although the cheapest glass of tea I had ever had in Turkey was never less than 0.4 TL and that was quite a few years ago; prices in Turkey have risen really steeply in the last 2-3 years, nowadays it could be quite far reach to find a glass of tea with less than 1 TL no matter where you go) but considering that a very small glass of tea in Antalya or the centre of Ankara costs 1.5TL or more, 1 TL at such a historical place is actually a bargain.

What I like most about this place is, it is very congenial and unpretentious. You can order a glass of tea and sit as long as you like in the cafe, nobody will come and hassle you or stare at you. Maybe that's due to the relative absence of foreign visitors in Antep - most foreigners opt for the more touristy Urfa or the historical sights of Diyarbakir - but there is no shortage of high-spending turkish tourists in Antep, and I have seen quite a few of them hanging out at this cafe, so maybe it is down to the way the management wants this place to be run - a fairly down-to-earth place for everybody. 

As said, the cafe is divided into the grand hall on the ground floor, and a semi-upper section accessible by a flight of stairs in the middle of the hall. I prefer the upper floor seatings, as it affords a better view of the whole place from above and is more suitable for those who want to enjoy some quiet moments on a slightly chilly winter afternoon.

In Turkey, very few things are better than a glass of freshly brewed steaming hot tea in a tulip-shaped glass on a cold winter day. Buy some top-grade roasted Antep pistachios from the shops around the corner, take a seat in this cafe and enjoy your evening watching the live football match shown on the flatscreen TVs on the wall. 

Copyrights@2011. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.