Breakfast in the U.S. may be more verb than noun: an act of wolfing something formerly frozen in zombie mode amid dawn’s early light, in an obligatory duty to maintain sustenance before a day toiling in the hive.
A proper Turkish breakfast stands at the polar opposite end of the breakfast spectrum, a sizable feast lavishly spread with small, hearty servings meant for one to savor and linger over, in a backhand slap to the concept of rising super early to catch the worm.
You nibble a bit of this. Take a little of that. Mix some of this spread with a corner of that cheese, which you’ll wedge into a hunk of bread as your other hand reaches for a morsel of dried fruit while conversing comfortably with your company. And always, always, there will be plenty of hot black tea and warm bread.
Alchemist Cafe and Restaurant has been open for three years on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Crescent Heights in the tiny, Mid-Wilshire-adjacent Carthay neighborhood, a crosstown block away from the Petersen Museum. It currently serves the best Turkish breakfast spread we’ve seen in Los Angeles, Tuesdays through Sundays, regardless of the hour, like an Ottoman Norm’s.
“We just want our customers to feel like they are coming to a part of Istanbul or a part of Turkey,” says co-owner Tin Tin Nyo, born in Burma and raised in California with Turkish heritage. “Like, basically, for Turkish people, they're coming home.”