Away from the usual into somewhere special



Rumeli Han is one of Istiklal Caddesi's surviving historic buildings with an unmistakable European architectural flair. It is easily gauged in the elegant stone and plaster details that refuse to bow out to the hodge-podge of business signage on its façade.
 
Among its unusual and interesting features is the Ottoman Turkish Arabic script right over the entrance proudly rendering the building's construction date and name. And along either side, Greek and French inscriptions flank the script, immediately establishing its geographic history while at the same time insinuating its European character. Intended or not, it's a clever way of making its dual character known. It certainly captures the cosmopolitan essence of Pera or Beyoğlu since the 1800s.
 
The duality has become more pronounced with the passing of time and throughout how people made use of this building. Now, as one goes through the uneven-floored pasajı or passage that presently make up its entrance, either on the way up the building or to get to Öğut Sokak from Istiklal without having to go around the block, it can pose a befuddlement. With the souk-like array of disparate merchandise lining both sidewalls, one gets disorientated as to whether one is stepping into a western or Middle Eastern world, a modern incursion or a retro one.
 
Right behind the first of the two lifts flopped in the middle of the passage, the second takes one up to the upper floors, stepping out into a distinctively European setting of curved marble steps, iron-work balustrade, large carved doors and the shadows of time lingering on surfaces. It's easy to imagine it being inside an old Barcelona or Paris edifice.
 
Occupying a good length of the fourth floor is Istanbul's latest secret address for the ever-evolving local scenesters. Unveiled two months ago with a series of soft openings, it is playing pied piper to the city's hip and chic. These are folks in the plastic arts (architects, interior designers, film makers, painters),  fashionistas and the odd journalist or two. All are known and nurtured as friends by the project's stylish creative director and entrepreneurs who've set up this hideaway, referred to simply as Rumeli.
 
For their target crowd, it's been an easy task for partners Aycan Yeniley, Handan Özbek and her brother Ahmet to draw up an impressive guest list to the new undertaking. After all, these are the same people making Leb-i derya in Kumbaraci the hot lively nightly scene soon after its inception six years ago. The same popularity carried over to the two-year-old high-end version of the restaurant/bar that is perched on the 6th floor of Hotel Richmond.
 
Actually, the young, skimming-in-their-thirties trio are the first to giggle about finding success in their ventures. Without prior restaurant business backgrounds, they'd be nonplussed to explain how they made it to the city's short list of must-do dining places other than by attributing to a good working teamwork among themselves and their staff in trying to attain a superb level of customer satisfaction.
 
For the second Leb-i derya, they'd specially credit the immeasurable input of Creative Director Gamze Ineceli's elevated food concepts, as executed by Chef N. Ozhan Sivetoglu. These two are dedicated to interpreting refined Ottoman cuisine in a modern way and to making use of everything that this country, blessed with a natural abundance of resources, can provide as ingredients. From truffles picked in the highlands of Assos, seafood from surrounding seas to the uniquely indigenous fruits and veggies, the homegrown is their culinary focus with a few exceptions to bolster the local choices.
 
While the same intent of sourcing is to be applied to catering to a party or event in the hideaway, Gamze Ineceli, an unabashed New Yorkphile, is quick to emphasize that any happening in Rumeli will not bear any cookie-cutter stamp. On the contrary, she intends to make each time a singular experience for whoever is throwing the bash and those attending it.
 
"Our two main venues provide basically a structured milieu, that of being restaurants with set menus and service. Here, we intend to break from the mold by working with the customers. It would be their fantasy made reality, not ours. In other words, we'll go with their theme and budget, and suggest the best way to achieve a memorable occasion".
 
If she sounds like she's inclined to mount a theatrical production, it's because she is an experienced theater person, with a Performing Arts degree from New York University. It was in the Big Apple where she not only honed her dancing prowess but her innate sensibilities for the finer things in life, a major part of which is good food. The fact that she has done time searching out the major Michelin-starred gourmet pit-stops while part of a performing dance group touring the world and when she lived la vie en rose in Paris, it is not hard for anyone arranging a private or corporate affair to be held in Rumeli to simply ease into Gamze's hands.
 
"With my own research and archives, and the back-up of Leb-i derya's staff and facilities, I can arrange to have, say, an 18th century themed dinner if you must or a more modest gathering for a wine and cheese". The past secle was brought up when this writer asked the extent of what she could do as party planner and was suggested by the physical make-up of the place itself.
 
Effected with light-handed touches by partner Handan Ozbek, an interior decorator by profession, the interiors of Rumeli suggest a comfortable drawing-cum-dining room in a Scandinavian palace or mansion, with blond wood floors pairing with the fixtures' pastel palette and the soft earth tones of modern sectional furniture fronting a whole mirrored wall in the salon area. The Northern European evocation is somehow a congruous link to Ottoman times, its inspiration, when even the Swedish king spent a number of years in exile in this city.
 
There is also a pronounced shabby chic element to the place with original details, like the ornamental ceiling molds, left as they were found and without being re-adorned, thereby imbuing it with an easy charm and none of that stuffy pretentious air that normally marks a period recreation. Handan achieved this by not going overboard with the amount of antique furnishings used. One of the few is the long dining table with French chairs. When dressed up for a celebration, it is the room's centerpiece and the fabulous mise-en-scene that greets a visitor stepping in from the main door.
 
There was nothing shabby in the table fare laid out during one recent party. As a matter of fact, if it was any indication of things to come, Rumeli, which can accommodate 24 persons for a sit-down dinner or 50 to 60 for an open buffet, would soon be the launch pad of Istanbul's gastronomic adventures. Smoked fillet of lamb served with wild berry and cognac cream sauce; roasted lamb fillet with spring onion and mint pesto sauce; beef carpaccio in truffle sauce; sea bass carpaccio also in truffle sauce; home-smoked salmon fillet drizzled with arugula aioli and topped with grains of sea salt; and decadent desserts of orange cream sconces with bitter chocolate, and strawberry chocolate fondue both made with Turkish dark chocolates were some of Gamze and Ozhan's sumptuous confections. I still could not get over the fact how each dish was impeccably executed to feed a multitude. Served in an equally sumptuous environment, the experience was - as that credit card ad says - priceless.
 
(Leb-i derya) Rumeli
Istiklal Cad. Rumeli Han C Blok Kat: 5 No. 43, Beyoğlu
Tel. (0212) 251 1008 Fax (0212) 243 4387  rumeli@lebiderya.com