Last Thursday…
I visited Fenz, who was stationed in one of the mansions in İstinye…
This mansion is not on the seafront like the nearby mansion of the Masked Lady, that is, Tansu Çiller…
A road passes in between… The place embraces the Bosphorus from the 2nd floor…
İstinye is not a place full of luxury restaurants and cool venues…
The most ambitious venue is Bahar Lokantasi, which is a real tradesmen’s restaurant… At least it was like that…
Until Fenz opened on September 26, 2023…
***
We met with Tolga Chef in Fenz this afternoon…
His first words when we met were… How young you are to be an associate professor…
However, his achievements are far beyond the boundaries of the academy…
Born in 1990, Tolga Şef’s academic CV is short but his achievements are long…
He doesn’t graduate from a university after high school graduation…
But today he teaches at a university… His education is from MSA…
Nişantaşı Must, Vadi İstanbul Barbary, Etiler Amaya, Galataport Vandal are some of the places he has worked before…
Tolga Chef does not owe this success to being the winner of the Chef Academy on Fox TV…
He already had a serious career when he entered the competition…
Of course, it is not a small task to win first place from the jury consisting of Ayhan Sicimoğlu, Ali Ronay and Arda Türkmen…
I was accompanied by one of the managers of Fenz, Giriş Gövsa, at the dinner…
Ms. Sevgi is a successful model and photomodel who worked at Erbek Agency in the past.
They have management experience such as Kalamış Posh, Bebek Posh, Şaşkınbakkal Afra…
We left the selection of the dishes to Chef Tolga and chatted with Ms. Sevgi about Fenz…
The most critical information is this…
Fenz’s investors are also the owners of that mansion…
So there is no rent pressure on Fenz…
Their primary purpose is not commercial… Of course, this is not a non-governmental organization…
But Pol Holding has important industrial and energy investments in Turkey and Northern Iraq…
For example, they do not prefer to turn Fenz into a clubbing area due to concerns about turnover…
DJ Uğur Can Kaya finishes his set at 1 o’clock at the latest on the roof of the 3rd floor…
This is a conscious choice…
Ms. Sevgi says that those who are interested in the place are roughly 38 years old and above…
I understand that they are happy with this situation…
***
Let’s come to the dishes Chef Tolga chose from the menu…
Citrus-Chicole salad respectively…
Grilled padron peppers & Antakya salted yoghurt cream…
Pan-glazed scallops & beef chorizo – maple butter…
And the star of the night… Coconut – lemon stick poached Lagos…
An important detail… Fenz makes his own bread…
Especially their sourdough bread, which uses blueberries, can be a meal on its own…
Their own production of freshly spiced champagne goes well with their vinegary butter…
They also make their own chocolates. Even though Ms. Ilgi specifically suggested it, I did not accept it…
Çetin Altan said years ago…
Every morning, when I walk out this door, I prepare as if I were going to stand in front of the women’s jury…
Here is that jury… He whispered into my ear at 10 at night…
Don’t even think about chocolate… You ate as much as you could…
***
The most distinctive thing in the architecture of the place is the paneling… In other words, interlocking woods…
This design by architect Mahmut Anlar adds serious weight to the space…
We dispersed this serious atmosphere a little with our chat with the head waiter of the venue, Hıdır Alici…
Hıdır Bey worked at the legendary venue Park Şamdan for 38 years…
Impressions, the business world, the art community, TUSIAD members… He has all the experiences…
There are also strange people in Bizim Istanbul’s customer profile…
Would a person come to Park Şamdan, steal Christofle brand cutlery and take them home?
Poor Park Şamdan found the solution by turning his cutlery into Jumbo…
I immediately looked at the cutlery in my hand… It was German WMF…
Park Şamdan is now history…
Are absurdities such as stealing cutlery a thing of the past?
Or will we see if history is just repeating itself…