Turkish Wine Bar Lokanta Pops Up in Fitzroy, With an Ex-Nomad Chef in the Kitchen

In Turkey, a lokanta is just a casual neighbourhood restaurant – anything from a meze bar to an old-school tavern. Lokanta, the Fitzroy pop-up that opened in the former Toddy Shop space in mid-July, is a “wine bar, but Istanbul-tavern style”, according to chef and co-owner Ali Besener.

Istanbul’s lokantalar feel “cosy and candid”, says Besener, who was born in the city and lived there for 25 years. The warm 20-seater just off Smith Street fit the bill, and Lokanta moved in for what was initially slated to be a five-week affair, but has now been extended until September 7.

The pop-up is a partnership between Besener and front-of-house whiz Tugay Görgülü. The pair first crossed paths in the kitchen at Brunswick East’s Mama Manoush in 2015. Görgülü stayed on and became venue manager. Besener went on to cook at Rumi, Maha, Nomad, Lilac Wine Bar and, most recently, Wally’s, where he was head chef for a year before leaving to open Lokanta.

This is Besener’s first time cooking Turkish food professionally, and he’s worried about repping the cuisine well. “I’m nervous as hell,” he admits. “There are a lot of traditional methods … that I’ve never used before. [But] I know how it’s supposed to taste.”

Luckily, Lokanta’s $69 set menu (there’s no à la carte) has been a hit with Turkish customers. The offering changes weekly, but the two-day-fermented pide flatbreads and fava bean dip will “live forever”, the chef says.

A second dip, always yoghurt-based, is a canvas for experimentation. Inspired by a stint at Hotel Jesus, Besener’s latest rendition is a cross between atom meze (garlicky labneh with fried dried chillis) and crunchy Mexican salsa macha. He spikes it with sharp Aleppo and smoky isot peppers, alongside pomegranate molasses, sesame and pumpkin seeds.

The bread and dips come with an original cultured butter – a mixture of regular and browned butter with crumbled goat’s cheese – inspired by the complimentary condiments laid out in Turkey’s kebab shops.

Iskender, another menu mainstay, gets a twist too. It’s typically prepared by layering kebab slices on pide to be doused in tomato sauce and nutty browned butter. Besener swaps out the usual doner meats for an MB5 Black Angus skirt steak, and uses a garlic-and-oregano sauce that has what he calls “passata vibes”.

That doesn’t mean traditional styles are overlooked. Each week, Besener makes an olive oil-braised vegetable dish from his mum’s recipes (previous iterations include orange-and-saffron celeriac, leek and borlotti beans). And the dil sogus – cumin-spiked smoked ox tongue – hails from Görgülü’s coastal home town of Izmir.

Northcote ice-cream shop Cuppa Turca is collaborating on desserts, providing scoops of maras, a Turkish ice-cream made with goat’s milk, sugar syrup and salep (a thickening agent derived from orchids that gives Middle Eastern ice-cream its famous stretch). So far, they’ve been paired with fried semolina halva topped with toasted pine nuts and hibiscus-poached candied quince. A tahini-flavoured scoop with chunks of halva, which Besener likens to cookie-dough ice-cream, came with candied pumpkin.

The eight-bottle wine list is entirely Turkish. “We were thinking about putting a couple of Australian wines on the list, and I was like, ‘You know what? [People] can go anywhere else [for that],” Besener says. “Nobody knows about Turkish grapes.”

He recommends pairing his pick – a creamy oak-barrelled yapincak (a semillon-like varietal grown in eastern Thrace) – with the bread course. Plus, there are four types of raki, the anise-and-grape-distilled spirit that’s Turkey’s national drink, served in shots.

Besener and Görgülü hope to find a permanent home for Lokanta next year. In the meantime, plans are already underway for another project: a cheeky kebab shop pouring pét-nats and craft beers.

Lokanta

191A Smith Street, Fitzroy

No phone

Hours

Sun 12pm–late

Mon 4pm–late

@lokantamelbourne