Life is gorgeous at Turkuaz Cafe

Pull the door handle to make the bells clang at Turkuaz Café on East Third Street. Scents of basil and sour cherry juice rush past while Turkish music thumps in time with clinking dishes. Peek in and a short, strong-shouldered but spry man bounces over because everyone looks “gorgeous.” Everything is “gorgeous.” Food is gorgeous, life is gorgeous, and most of all, humans are gorgeous.

Metin Ayvazoglu, whose childlike brown eyes complement a smile that nearly stretches beyond his round face, moved to Bloomington in September, 2002. He found a small restaurant space, laid wood flooring, painted the walls with little yellow flowers, fluffed up pillows, and unrolled ornate rugs that reminded him of his life-long home in Kelkit, Turkey.

“Normally, when someone opens a restaurant, they visit other restaurants,” Metin says. “When I decided to open, I didn’t go to any restaurants. I didn’t look at any prices. I just did it my way. I was homesick—therefore I designed it like Turkey.”

Now, Metin spends every day meeting people and sharing stories over tabouli salad, strong Turkish coffee and nutty baklava, a famous sweet and light pastry with a sugary syrup. Turkuaz dishes range in price from $3 to $5.50, but additional plates of appetizers and traditional deserts are worth the extra cash. “Life is gorgeous with [people],” Metin says. “Like my food. People say it is so nice, so good. But if you are not here, it is nothing.”

Metin teases a customer not to pay then lets her slip a five on the front counter for a bottomless cup of tea and coffee cake. He squeezes his eyebrows then looks up with dark, earnest eyes. No wonder so many customers come back to support the tiny-statured man with the big spirit. “When you are opening your first job in America and humans can’t understand you, you are getting ready to lose,” Metin says. “But they help you. They support you. I don’t know the language. I am from a different ethnic group, but if you are human, everybody is human with you. Is there a jump in your heart? Other people are jumping too. They are breathing the same.”

Once customers have relaxed and ordered off the extensive menu, a waitress dressed in jeans and a bandana rushes by with a plate full of kebabs. A burst of fresh oregano hits the air. Sprawled out on soft pillows or sitting with tea by the window, everyone breathes the same.