Dükkan launches a new hamburger shop

by Muge Akgun - Referans

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After making a name for himself with an extraordinary butcher's shop in an Istanbul shantytown, culinary entrepreneur Emre Mermer has expanded his Dükkan empire with a hamburger shop in Bebek.

Mermer, who studied business at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, started out working for the international inspection company Coopers & Lyband and the French bank Societe Generale. After completing his military service, he decided to make a major career change and went into the business of bovine breeding. Taking out a bank loan, he established a small farm in İzmit in 1998 and went to the Netherlands to learn about breeding veal. Upon returning to Turkey, he started producing veal and selling it to hotel restaurants.

As his business grew, Mermer rented a depot in the Küçükarmutlu district in 2004, eventually turning the location into a two-table boutique butcher’s shop called Dükkan, to serve customers who wanted to eat, not just buy, meat there. Three years later, Mermer and a partner, Defne Koryürek, officially entered the restaurant business, opening the Dükkan Steakhouse inside the Beymen department store in Nişantaşı last year. Mermer has since dissolved his partnership with Koryürek and this month launched his latest endeavor, Dükkanburger, a Bebek shop selling only burgers - regular, with cheese, and with (beef) bacon - fries and beer.

His secret is high-quality meat
While some restaurant owners say only a good chef is required to produce a good meal, Mermer believes it is impossible to prepare a good meal with average products. Though he has 250 animals now, Mermer also buys meat, especially lamb, from other farms, setting the best aside to be dried and aged. He said finding good meat is a challenge, not only in Turkey, but also around the world, because only 1 percent of all meat produced is top quality. In the United States, he said the figure is 2 percent, and higher in Argentina, where meat is of excellent quality. In Turkey, the good feed needed to produce good meat is generally not used, nor is young veal, because it is expensive. Without enough demand for high-quality meat, there is little supply. Mermer would like to see restaurant owners cooperate to support quality producers. At Dükkan, almost everything, except for salad fixings, is made in-house. After spending three months creating a special kitchen, they have recently started baking their own bread.

There is no doubt that meat sold at Dükkan are among the best in Turkey, thanks to Mermer’s dedication, which has taken him around the world to learn ways to improve his product. Although the lamb shish, smoked steak and apple sausage are better than average, still customers do not get a perfect taste when the meats are overcooked and something is missing from Dükkan's hamburgers, too.

Mermer said he has been trying to teach his cooks how to prepare meat for years, but it is difficult because the chef’s performance is still very important. He said surely restaurants not known for their food quality would be the most impacted by the economic crisis and the Dükkan Steakhouse, where the average meal costs 50 to 80 Turkish Liras, has already been affected. He said the new Bebek shop charges around 20 liras for a burger, fries and a beer.

In addition to the Dükkan website, www.dukkanistanbul.com, Mermer has a blog, acemikasap.blogspot.com, where he writes about the places he visits and eats.