New Turkish cafe, bakery opens in Dublin

A regular fixture at local farmers markets has found a permanent home in Dublin.

Tulip Cafe held its very first soft opening on Aug. 17 at 2926 Hayden Run Plaza, and will remain open to customers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays moving forward. The new spot is also planning a larger, official grand opening in the near future.

An authentic, from-scratch Turkish bakery and cafe, Dublin diners can expect to find both savory and sweet items on their sizable menu. 

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This includes Turkish bagels (also called simit), brorek (flaky phyllo dough pastries filled with spinach and cheese), stuffed grape leaves, a wide variety of Turkish delight and baklava, plus their massive and indulgent Nutella cookies.

They also offer catering services for a number of different events.

“My wife [Hatice Kucuker] and her partner [Hanife Evliyaoglu], they were doing everything for charity purposes in the beginning,” said Ali Kucukerv, Hatice’s husband. “Throughout that time, they got a lot of encouragement, so they decided to do it at farmers markets starting in 2016, working out of a commercial kitchen.”

And this is when things really took off. According to Kucuker, customers quickly caught on to their recipes—some of which have been made in Turkey for hundreds or even thousands of years. And while the duo was able to expand to four different farmers markets in the area, after only a short amount of time they had reached their maximum capacity.

“Whatever they produced would sell out,” he said. “They wanted to be in more markets, but they couldn’t make enough.”

The new Dublin space—which will allow Kucuker and Evliyaoglu to produce more of their signature baked goods—is the first brick and mortar iteration of Tulip Cafe, but their years of pop-up sales have already established a regular customer base for the growing business.

“In the beginning, they started selling and people didn’t know what they were making,” Ali Kucuker said. “But now they have a lot of fans; a lot of regular customers.”

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