I have to tell you and I am almost sure you know that feeling. There are some songs which speak to everyone in any age and time. Enjoying these songs is something so hard to explain especially to foreigners. And this enjoyment is probably the only thing which ties you to your national identity and culture. Translating the lyrics would never work and you mostly do not see that your foreigner friend’s eyes shine while listening to the song. “It means this… But of course when translating, it is not the same.” It is hard to comprehend the soul of these songs; if I need the change the lyrics it is like “songs are strange when you’re a stranger”.
Gramofon Cafe is in Samanpazarı neighborhood. It opens you the old doors of a new world. You feel the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s. It is dedicated to gramophones, vinyls, cult singers and actresses/ actors. Listening to the gramophone records, you feel that the singer is singing in the room, in front of your eyes. As many other people who grew up in Turkey, I also was raised with Yeşilçam classics- Turkish movie industry was called Green Pine, imitating Hollywood. The Yeşilçam movie soundtracks and the actresses/ actors from these old movies cover this cafe and keep the memories alive.
The cafe is actually not an old one, opened in 1993 and owned by an uneducated repairman who fell in love with gramophones many years ago once he started repairing them. Then he collected gramophones from different times, pictures, newspapers, vinyls, portraits and instruments- everything which is related to Yeşilçam classics and Ottoman/Turkish Classical Music. There are 40,000 (over 9000!!!) gramophone records and vinyls in the cafe that you can discover on your own. The corner in the picture is dedicated to Elvis Presley, the only non-Turkish singer in the cafe.
The cafe is more of a tea house and its specialty is mantı. Mantı is one of the most liked food of Turkish cuisine; it is small dumplings filled with minced meat mix. Normally when we need to explain it to the foreigners, we describe it as “Turkish ravioli”. I will be a gusto nationalist now and say, no it is not like that and even though I am not a big fan of mantı, it is much better than any version of ravioli. I hope one day people will need to explain ravioli as, “You know, it’s like Italian mantı.” I wish the cafe was more of a meyhane place, “tavern” I mean, because these songs and atmosphere are wasted without rakı- anise drink with a high percentage of alcohol and rakı sofrası- specially prepared table full of meze-”cold dishes” which company rakı. Rakı is like Greek Uzo you know! No, it’s not, its less sugary. Rakı’s nickname is “the lion’s milk” because its white as milk and it is so strong that its for lions or it makes you a lion after a few glasses. If the holy three of “the West” is sex, rock’n roll and drugs, the holy three in Turkey is rakı, rakı sofrası (including the great chats during eating) and fasıl music which consist of Turkish classic music.
What I liked the most about the cafe was that it’s not touristic at all. Despite its unique atmosphere, it is rather full with students who are definitely not hipsters and retro heads, and some other folks who enjoy their books and magazines while drinking tea and listening to the music. There were only two tourists and I realized that the waiters had a very limited English. Probably the tourists go to the boutique hotels and cafes like Chris’ Pide House around the neighborhood. It’s nice to see Gramofon doesn’t have loud tourists suppressing the music who drink beer and destroy the peaceful atmosphere in the cafe.
The area with couches was my favorite, it is rather far from the other tables. It is the corner of Orhan Gencebay, an important musician who makes rather Turkish folk music blending it into Turkish Western classical music. As Elvis Presley being “the king”, Orhan Gencebay is called baba- “the father”, because of his cult status and his humanitarian attitude that makes people respect him a lot. I had read in a magazine that the owner of the cafe has a good contact with Orhan Gencebay. Orhan Baba is still alive, so new generations still know him and we all know at least a few songs of him. There are more other corners in the cafe dedicated to other cult artists. One of them is for Zeki Müren, with his nicknames sanat güneşi- the sun of art and paşa- the Pasha. His voice and shows were exquisite. Imagine Turkey in 50′s and a man is going down on the stage on a swing, wearing woman’s dress and high heels and shining with glitter make-up. He managed to balance the high culture art with grotesque shows and has always been commemorated with respect and admiration. These people were oldies but indeed they are still goldies.
