Foxy Nişantaşı
Opened in 2019 by Levon Bağış, one of Türkiye’s leading wine experts, and by Maksut Aşkar, the chef of One Michelin-starred Neolokal, Foxy is a wine-centric place from the start. Everything on the menu is, first and foremost, an ‘accompaniment.’ The portions of dishes are more like ‘tasting size’, so that you can have a different dish with each wine. You can also have your wine on a “tasting” portion and enjoy various wines. The restaurant has more than 200 wines in its cellar and at least one matching dish for each wine. But each dish can be paired with several matching wines. As you can see, Foxy is all about for the guests to enjoy good food with wine pairings, and experience endless combinations and flavors.
Still, the main defining feature of Foxy is none of them, but its commitment to serving wines made from local Turkish grapes. Some Merlot or Chardonnay versions are well adapted to Türkiye’s terroir, but here, the emphasis is on local grapes like Misket, Narince, Öküzgözü, Foça Karası, Keten Gömlek, Boğazkere or Sultaniye. As Foxy’s wine mastermind who has been working on local grapes, centuries-old vineyards, and the cultural heritage of wine for many years, Levon Bağış notes that when he and chef Maksut Aşkar opened Foxy, they were guided by two fundamental principles: “Our mission will forever be to bring together local grapes and local cuisine. Why? Because we aim to highlight two important points: Firstly, our local cuisine blends perfectly with local wine. The combination of lakerda (a kind of salted bonito) with a good white wine or topik (a traditional mezze made of chickpea, onion, cinnamon and tahini) and hummus with a good red wine is exceptional. We want to remind people that many of the mezes traditionally associated with raki also pair perfectly with wine, which was popular in this country before rakı– a fact we often forget. Secondly, there are so qualified grapes in this country. We want to emphasize that our local varieties are sufficient to sustain a place like this. In 2005, there were only 327 local wines. Today, there are thousands… This number will ever increase if we produce and promote them. We want to emphasize this point. That’s why we’re committed to serving only local wines from local producers.”
If you have to choose just one place to try wine in Istanbul, whether you’re a newcomer or a connoisseur, whether you’re looking for a classic Turkish coupage like Öküzgözü-Boğazkere or new experiments like pet-nat or natural wines made from local grapes, Foxy is the perfect place.
Vino Locale
Vino Locale is one of the most exceptional restaurants in Urla. Not only does it have One Michelin star and Green Star, but it also stands out for its emphasis on sustainability and localism in every aspect. However, when Seray Kumbasar, one of the restaurant’s partners, brought Michelin’s Best Sommelier Award to Türkiye for the first time at the Michelin Awards in 2023, a lot more people became aware of the care and emphasis that Vino Locale puts on local wines.
Read also: Türkiye: Green Starred Restaurants in Urla, Hiç, Vino Locale, Od Urla
Located on the Urla Vineyard Road -one of the most essential wine roads in Türkiye- Vino Locale combines the region’s ingredients with the best local wines from its opening, but now, Seray Kumbasar goes beyond that now: She expands her wine list, travels across Türkiye to find the right local wines to pair with the local ingredients. “For the first year and a half after we opened, I only had wines from our region on the menu. However, I realized I needed to promote local grapes and help people get to know them when I visited some of Elazığ’s vineyards in the country’s far east. This passion passed on to Ozan, my husband and chef. Before, we used to match our wine list to the dishes on the menu. But when he saw how excited I was about local grapes, Karkuş for example, he said, ‘Let’s create a dish to match Karkuş!’ Now, we’re developing some dishes specifically to highlight certain local grapes, introducing our guests to new varieties,” says Seray Kumbasar. Indeed, she has the view of the perfect relationship between wine and food: as in an ideal relationship, the pairing of food and wine should not always be “one way or the other”. Sometimes, one should complement the other, but both should always elevate and excite each other!
Seray Kumbasar’s enthusiasm for local grapes and wines is contagious, as noted by the Michelin inspectors. She says she has become more passionate about the subject, especially since she sees the new generation keenly interested. Unlike previous generations, the latest generation is more open-minded. If they are interested in a subject, they do not hesitate to ask questions to learn more, making it easier for Seray to share accurate information. The sommelier says this is what motivates her most. She believes in telling the Türkiye’s grape and wine heritage, from endemic varieties to centuries-old vineyards, and in conveying this culture beyond “recommending the right wine for a dish". She quickly points out that she has won the Michelin Best Sommelier Award in this respect, which only adds to the impact of what she has to say. The fact that both Seray and Ozan Kumbasar operate with a deep sense of gastronomic ethics also adds to their sense of responsibility in this regard: “From the very beginning, we have worked with the consideration of the human factor in this field. For example, we recruit our trainees only from the local vocational college. We increased the number of trainees and deepened our wine training after the Michelin Awards. I am so proud to see them become competent. Now, they recognize the local grapes and represent wines truly. Again, we encourage local winemakers to process local grapes and produce natural wines. As we have told local winemakers from the beginning, ‘As long as you produce without pesticides, we will buy your product.’ The more power and influence means the more responsibility. We need to raise awareness in these areas and become the transformative force of the sector in Türkiye when our interviews are published in media like the BBC and The New York Times. Our awards must contribute to the region, the producer, and the winemaker.”
Kumbasar emphasizes the importance of visiting different vineyards in Türkiye and directly contacting the producers. According to Kumbasar, she can offer her customers more local wines because her recommendations are taken more seriously now. For instance, she can ask some customers who always drink the same wines to try natural wines, or she can ask the producers along the Urla Vineyard Road to experiment with newer techniques for processing the region’s grapes. That’s for sure, what she has been doing develops and changes the gastronomy habitus.
Illustration Image: Vino Locale, Seray Şen Kumbasar, Michelin Sommelier Award 2024 © Burçin Esin / Vino Locale
