• File: Sarah Priestap
• Jackie and Vural Oktay in 2018

The co-owners of two Turkish restaurants in Vermont plan to open Cappadocia Café, a counter-service bakery and café, at 5 South Main Street in White River Junction this spring. Brothers Vural and Hasan Oktay and Vural's wife, Jackie, own Istanbul Kebab House in Burlington and Tuckerbox in White River Junction. Vural and Jackie also own Little Istanbul, a White River Junction retail shop selling imported spices and other goods from the brothers' native Turkey.

The new café will be next door to Tuckerbox in a space the Oktays are currently renovating. They hope to open it by April 1, depending on the immigration process for the restaurant's two Turkish chefs, Jackie said. The location was occupied by Piecemeal Pies from 2016 to May 2023, when that restaurant closed abruptly.

Jackie, 37, said the centerpiece of Cappadocia Café will be a custom-tiled, wood-fired oven in which chefs will bake thin flatbreads called lahmajun and canoe-shaped pizzas called pide. The former are often topped with ground lamb, finely chopped fresh vegetables, parsley and sumac-marinated onions, then rolled to eat.

The café will also offer borek pastries, made with housemade phyllo and filled with potato, spinach and cheese or slow-cooked beef; and pogaa, a popular Turkish street food of bread dough filled with white cheese, parsley and spices.

Cappadocia Café is named for a volcanic valley in central Turkey known for its distinctive natural landscape and ancient structures dating back to the Bronze Age. Jackie described it as "a magical place" and a favorite travel destination for the family.