The sounds and smells of sizzling meat draw hungry vacationers looking for a reasonably-priced meal near educate stations, hostels, airports, and overdue-night time bar stops to road carriers. The sight of a slowly rotating spit of glistening lamb or hen seals the deal.
Thin-shaved meat and tangy sauces swaddled in a heated pita or a comparable flatbread is salvation in sandwich form for the duration of the Mediterranean, however specifically in Turkey, where the vertical rotisserie was invented by means of Iskender Efendi greater than 150 years ago, resulting in a wave of döner kebab that has because spread at some point of Europe and into the U.S.
We’re acquainted with döner’s close cousin, gyros, from the Greek diners that line Colfax Avenue and dot other older neighborhoods around Denver, or even shawarma, a comparable configuration differing especially inside the seasonings, served from spits in the city’s Middle Eastern kitchens. But Turkish delicacies is all however not possible to locate within the Mile High City. That is, until you forestall at Bosphorus, the tiny Turkish eatery that Melih Cingilli opened at 3493 South Downing Street in Englewood on August eight.
Built right into an area that previously held a hair salon, Bosphorus serves döner in addition to a selection of other Turkish sandwiches, soups, salads, appetizers and entrees from an open kitchen that offers a full view of two rotisseries, one loaded with fragrant foul and the opposite retaining a lamb-beef blend.
Cingilli has handiest called Denver domestic due to the fact that 2015, however, he’s been in the U.S. In view that 1997, whilst he moved to Minnesota to attend university. He commenced cooking early, learning the circle of relatives dishes from his father and grandmother in Ankara after which supporting run a small Turkish restaurant. He’d been out of the meals-provider enterprise for a while, even though, while he saw the vacant area on South Downing (right next door to Cochino Taco and close to Swedish Medical Center). Suddenly, he turned into stimulated to open his personal eating place.
Iskender Efendi did more than popularizing vertical spit roasting; he lent his name to a dish, Iskender kebab, it’s now one in all Turkey’s most famous food objects and is served, among many other locations, at the restaurant run by using Efendi’s descendants in Bursa. Cingilli gives Iskender kebab at Bosphorus; it is his favorite dish at the menu. The components are familiar to fanatics of döner kebab sandwiches, but this is served as an entree, with shaved bird or the lamb-pork blend topping fried portions of pita. A beneficiant drizzle of tomato sauce and yogurt make it fork-and-knife fare. Cingilli’s tomato sauce is silky and mild, with a plummy sweetness and natural notes that he says come from the addition of mint and basil.
That sauce additionally balances the bitterness of eggplant in an appetizer called patlican tavasi. This dish is often served as a stew similar to French ratatouille, but at Bosphorus, it arrives as thick, velvety slices of fried eggplant sided with triangles of pita. Other appetizers familiar from Mediterranean cuisine encompass stuffed grape leaves, falafel, hummus, and spinach börek, a puff-pastry pie that incorporates feta cheese, not unlike Greek spanakopita.
The spit-roasted meats show up in various formats, from sandwiches and Iskender kebab to the Sultan Platter, which may be ordered for two to 4 visitors and is derived with an expansion of meats and grilled veggies. Köfte — referred to as Turkish meatballs right here — additionally make a look, as do the cubed and marinated red meat or bird that a lot of us think of while we pay attention the word “kebab.” On the complete, the menu will no longer be unexpected to every person who frequents Middle Eastern, Greek or different Mediterranean eating places, with possibly the purple-lentil soup status out as particular. Still, the particulars of cooking style and seasoning make Bosphorus surprisingly Turkish. Lunch or dinner for the duration of peak hours is not a rushed affair, because the kitchen is small and the proprietor does much of the cooking and table provider himself, with the assist of one different cook dinner. The decor inside the eating room contains Turkish flags, art and adorns, in addition to Turkish soccer club memorabilia. It’s comfortable and alluring, with best six two-top tables, so lingering over robust black Turkish tea or coffee and a slice of baklava isn’t always out of the query.
Cingilli moved to Denver to start a circle of relatives along with his spouse, Lauren, who is from Colorado. They selected Bosphorus, the slim waterway straddled by using Istanbul that divides Europe and Asia, as the call of the restaurant to represent the connection among the 2 continents, the ties among East and West. That connection now extends to Denver, bringing a taste of Turkey to the suburb of Englewood.
Bosphorus is open day by day from 11 a.M. To nine p.M. For lunch and dinner. Neighbors and clinical professionals will welcome the takeout-friendly menu; call 303-942-1267 for more details or to location an order.
