In Sanayi Mahallesi – an Istanbul neighborhood where the streets are lined with hundreds of mechanic workshops and auto supply stores – most people are looking for spare car parts or a place to get their Fiat fixed. We, on the other hand, came here in search of döner. More specifically, we ventured to this area to eat at Ata Lokantası, a fantastic esnaf lokantası (tradesman’s restaurant) that has been open since the late 1980s, and serves a rotating menu of comforting, homestyle dishes popular with workers in the area and white-collar office employees from the looming skyscrapers nearby. The menu features döner only on Fridays, and we heard it was excellent.
On döner day, the hulking cylinder of spit-roasted meat gets fired so early that you could have it for breakfast. We rolled in just before noon, and things were calm. We placed our order and by the time we dug in, it started to get busy. The döner is among the best we’ve ever had, with perfect levels of salt and fat, sliced expertly by the bespectacled Hamit usta, who runs the show in the kitchen.
The owner, thirty-six-year-old Atahan Altınordu is not a veteran of the restaurant business. He is better known as a sports journalist who has written for a number outlets, in particular the respected Turkish magazine Socrates. More than three decades ago, Ata Lokantası was an auto parts store just like many of its neighbors, owned by Atahan’s grandfather.
“When my father was doing his military service, my grandfather passed away. At that point the store was in debt; it was about to go bankrupt. My father came in but he couldn’t manage it,” Atahan explained, adding that his dad, Batuhan, didn’t know where certain car parts were located and that people would come in and stuff their pockets with inventory, effectively robbing the store blind. Batuhan was in over his head, attempting to switch careers after years as a renowned DJ at a number of famous Istanbul nightclubs that no longer exist. Atahan recounts that his dad was famous for his smooth mixing. But now, having put the LPs back on the shelf and disposed of the car parts, it was time to change the business model. With a friend, the elder Altınordu decided to convert the auto parts store into a köfte restaurant in the late ‘80s. On its fourth day, a woman named Hanife answered their ad in the paper that was looking for a dishwasher. She ended up working at Ata Lokantası for fifteen years, and devised many of the recipes, transforming the köfteci into a full-on restaurant with a wide array of dishes.
In 1996, the family expanded the small place by renting out the property next door, knocking down a wall and making way for a spacious dining room. When Hanife left in the early 2000s, Atahan’s mother, Feray, took a more active role in the kitchen, adding her own influential touches to the menu. Tragically, she succumbed to cancer in early 2019, and Atahan’s father was unable to get over the loss of his beloved wife. He passed away a year and a half later. It was the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and business was not good. Prior to his death, his father thought of closing the place down, but Atahan was resolved to keep it going. After all, it was a restaurant with years of history and a large, dedicated base of regulars. By this time, Hamit usta was fully in charge of the kitchen, and it was now up to Atahan to run the front of the house, though he admits that he is not good with managing money. How many writers are, anyway?
“My father’s best friend is someone who is well-versed in business and owns factories. He said ‘Atahan, you can’t run the place. Your dad was thinking of closing anyway, and you will all of a sudden acquire large debts and close before you know it,’” Atahan shares. But he didn’t take this pessimistic advice, and received an outpouring of support from his circle of friends. Two of them, who were doing well financially, said they would run Ata Lokantası if Atahan was unable to do so. They joked that if necessary, they would take care of the business but Atahan, now the face of the restaurant, would still man the register.
“For a couple years I made nothing. It was really difficult,” Atahan acknowledged. But nowadays, he’s hitting his stride. In previous years when his parents were still with us, Ata Lokantası served döner on a daily basis, and though it was very popular, Atahan’s dad got tired of it and removed the spit. Eventually, Hamit usta, no stranger to döner as he sliced it for seventeen years in the Black Sea province of Bartın, proposed that they start offering it again. Hamit usta is dead serious about his job. He shows up before the crack of dawn to start cooking, not because he needs to, but because he wants to. While carving the döner, he displays a prominent level of concentration and attention to detail. Watching him cut thin slices of perfectly roasted döner is truly watching a master in action.
Notwithstanding, Atahan insists that Ata Lokantası is not defined not by döner but by the stews and homestyle food that are served five days a week. This is the reason for our second visit. The restaurant closes at 4:30 p.m. or earlier if the food runs out, and we’ve come on the late side. But we manage to get our hands on a plate of püreli köfte (meatballs served atop creamy mashed potatoes and a light tomato and green pepper sauce) as well as a serving of karalahana sarması, where instead of grape leaves kale is rolled around spiced rice and morsels of ground beef. Both dishes are solid: the köfte is clearly made with quality meat, and the bed of mashed potatoes and the slight acidity from the tomatoes and peppers makes it sing. The karalahana sarması goes amazingly well with a dollop of yogurt, and the rice inside is so good it could be a dish on its own that we would happily devour. Neither these dishes nor the döner needed any additional spices. No salt, no red pepper flakes, nothing. They were all cooked supremely and demanded no additional attention.
Despite having been open for decades, we’re just now getting acquainted with Ata Lokantası. After three visits (on the third we stopped in once again on döner Friday) it’s already become one of our favorite restaurants in this city of endless possibilities. The dishes, those making them, and the folks in the front of the house represent everything good about Turkish food culture. We’re thankful that Atahan decided to keep the legacy alive, and are hopeful that this diamond in the rough will shine for at least another 35 years.
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