Turkish Cafe

In the middle of Socratous Street (no. 76), in the center of its Medieval City Rhodes, among the modern tourist shops, one meets the Turkish Cafe. A note of old times, as it is the only authentic hangout reminiscent of the life of the old city, its trademark, as it reflects the multicultural identity of an era.

Let us not forget that at the time of the great population exchanges between Greece and Turkey, shortly after 1922, Rhodes and the Dodecanese were an Italian colony. So the Turkish minority had no reason to move, and remained in place. The Turkish cafe and according to the hand-painted inscription "Bekir Karakouzou Coffee and Coffee Mill" was the center of the Turkish community for years. There is a photo where the Turks are seen with their fezas and stivans - from the adjacent stanivarium - gathered, drinking their coffee and sipping their hookah on the narrow sidewalk in front of the cobbled cobbled street of the old market.

Unfortunately, I had not been able to photograph the Turkish Cafe at the time I was recording the cafes in Greece, because its owner had died and was closed for a while.

So now that it has reopened, always from the same family, I have the opportunity to capture it.

We were welcomed by Hercules who has taken over the operation of the cafe, and after he offered us a Turkish coffee he told us two words:

"From what is said, there were so many people who frequented the cafe that was consumed daily, over 40 kilos of coffee, which was made by the machine of the store. "Now only tourists visit us because the Turkish neighborhood and the old market have become the most commercial street of Rhodes".

Indeed, the machine that cut the coffee (brand Diamant) is one of the exhibits of the museum cafe. A coffee in a copper kettle, overlooking the amazing pebble floor, low ondas with beautiful pillows, among ottoman-style ceramics, old antique utensils, like an old phonograph, is all you need to travel a little in the life of the cafe that is about to reach the two hundred years.

The Turkish Cafe is open daily: 09.00-23.00