This weekend I went to Anemas Cafe for Turkey’s Traveller’s Club board meeting and on my way to return I heard about an interesting place nearby. Of course I went to check out and had a coffee there. And yes, it was clearly my fault to not know this place before! Here’s what you should know about Dervish Father Cafe aka Derviş Baba Kahvehanesi.
Maybe some of you already heard Derviş Baba Kahvehanesi but I will tell you like you have no idea 🙂 By the way full name goes like Derviş Baba, Deliler, Abdallar, Meczuplar ve Aşıklar Kahvehanesi which you can roughly translate to Dervish Father, Mads, wandering dervishes, Sufism dervishes (who has been completely carried away by a mystical experience) and lovers (though in this sense it is used for love as universal not romantic way to another person).
I’m sure some people come here for the interesting decor, god knows how many types of herbal teas, special Turkish coffee made on ember, or house specialty “Tekke soup”, but this place is much more than an ordinary cafe.
Opened in 2009 in Balat neighborhood of İstanbul, now a popular place many tourists came by, this place priority guest are literally mad people of neighbourhood and poor people! I’ll explain in a bit. In this cafe, on certain days you can join spiritual conversations, enjoy “ney” (reed flute) music and if you are looking for a place to start helping people, this is the address you should visit. Charity organized here has already helped hundreds of families that cannot afford to pay rent , fed many hungry people, helped students on their school necessities, sick people’s operation costs are covered and volunteer teachers give lessons from violin to Spanish to students here…
Founders of this place are journalist Musa Dede from one of the leading newspapers in Turkey;Hürriyet, and architect Ali Denizci. With Musa Dede’s words “This place is like Noah’s arc, every living soul can be a guest. You can see a big company CEO talking to a crook, a communist talking to a priest, a nationalist talking to a foreigner, a wise man talking to a mad man…”
The story of these two coming together to open this place is also interesting. In a dinner Musa Dede asks everyone to make a wish and he wishes to open a place where he can help people. 10 days later in another conversation he meet Ali Denizci who speaks passionately about mad people on the streets of Balat, mistreated by neighborhood, chased with sticks, and people who lost their place to stay in winter time thanks to neighborhood reconstruction project. And Ali Denizci says “I wish we have a place where we can help these people”. And the Derviş Baba (Dervish Father), who is like a master in their spiritual sufism conversations at the time, tells them to go open a place like that together. Although their personalities greatly differs, Musa and Ali start to work together and with help in less than a month they open this place like it has been there for thousand years. A place to help poor and the mad, a place to drop by for conversation, a place to calm down…
Of course you are likely to meet some of the famous mad guests of the place if you happen to drop by, Yaşar for example is the poster boy for the place, his smile is contagious! Even though he has the intelligence of a 5 years old, he will share his food and clothes with anyone in need, so his heart is also as pure as a 5 years old.
In any case even if you are not in the area, do drop by to experience this place…You may be surprised where it will lead you…
PS: Dervish Father Cafes are in some other locations too, like Cihangir and Kadıkoy, but this Balat location is the place the idea borned, so this is the original place.