Kardes Turkish Provides to Nashville’s International Eating Map | Eating Critiques

Whereas contemplating the place you would possibly seize breakfast, decide up lunch, order a supply or make a reservation for dinner, for a second think about a Nashville with out immigrants.

No breakfast tacos for you. No gyro, no sushi, no pho, no hummus, no pad Thai, no bibimbap, no tikka masala, no agnolotti, no naan, no samosas, no pupusas, no empanadas, no bánh mì, no birria, no spring rolls and no cannoli. No Worldwide Market, no Epice, no Korea Home, no Home of Kabob, no Kien Giang, no Alebrije. 

I’m so Previous Nashville that I keep in mind the primary genuine Mexican restaurant that opened on Nolensville Highway, the primary Indian restaurant, the primary sushi bar, the primary Center Jap, the primary Vietnamese, the primary Korean.

Meals could seem a quite insignificant a part of the large image relating to what is going on to immigrants in America immediately, and relating to imagining a Nashville — and an America — bereft of the immeasurable contributions of immigrants. However it is a eating column, in order that’s the lens I’m wanting via.  

Which brings me to this episode of Previous Nashville Meets New Nashville, through which I ask: The place the hell am I, and what the hell is going on? The final time I used to be in what was then L&L Restaurant Tools, I used to be looking for a big cone-shaped meals strainer within the dusty, darkish and creaky ramble of a 90-year-old former hosiery mill.

Shoot me out of the time machine and I’m standing within the totally renovated, shiny and vivid, brightly branded, decidedly New Nashville L&L Market — dwelling to luxurious retail retailers, a yoga studio, a cycle bar, pores and skin and hair salons, wine store and eating places. These embrace Kardes Turkish Grill & Bar, which is what introduced me to modern-day L&L. (By no means thought I’d get right here, did you?)

A Nashville with out immigrants would imply Selim Ülker wouldn’t have come from Ankara, Turkey, to Nashville in 2018. He was the culinary driving drive and opening chef behind Edessa when it was reimagined from a hookah bar to a full-service restaurant serving Kurdish delicacies (and owned by immigrants). Two years later, Ülker went on to work for former Spiaggia chef Tony Mantuano when he and his spouse Cathy opened Yolan in SoBro’s Joseph Lodge. The very upscale Italian restaurant was fairly the 180 from Edessa (which went on to be named one in every of The New York Instances’ 50 Greatest Eating places within the nation in 2024).

Like many immigrants, Ülker dreamed of opening his personal restaurant — one the place he would have a good time the tradition and cook dinner the meals of his nation. With brother Cem (who doesn’t cook dinner), he started in search of area and laying the groundwork for a full-service, elevated-dining Turkish restaurant. However in the mean time, Tamay Ozari — the proprietor and developer of L&L, and likewise an immigrant from Turkey — urged he take an area within the constructing for an off-the-cuff idea.

If Ozari’s ulterior motive was a style of dwelling, he acquired it with the opening of Kardes (pronounced “Kardesh”) in October.

The succinct menu is rooted in road meals, custom and residential cooking. It’s additionally rooted in execution, navigated by the kitchen’s small measurement and restricted gear — prep area, one induction burner and two Japanese-style charcoal grills below a formidable metal hood emblazoned with the restaurant’s identify. Dangling from the ceiling are dozens of nazar boncuk, the azure amulet also called the Turkish evil eye, believed to protect towards hurt.

A shiny aluminum-topped U-shaped bar separates the cooks from diners, who can declare one of many 20 diner-inspired swivel stools. L&L gives further open seating at tables shut by, and only a few ft from the wine bar Pont Neuf, the place my companions bought a bottle to get pleasure from with dinner. (Kardes doesn’t serve alcohol of any kind.)

Whether or not your get together is 2 or 10, start with the Meyhane Expertise and clear desk area for the unfold of spreads (massive teams will wish to order multiple). The “expertise” is an expression of a kind of Turkish tavern often called a meyhane, the place individuals come collectively casually for camaraderie, dialog, neighborhood, ingesting and snacking. The Kardes expertise is seven particular person plates — some hummus-based, some yogurt-based, some grain-based and a few root-vegetable-based. All include evenly grilled pita factors (sourced from Nolensville Highway bakeries).

Turkish hummus is served heat, with a thinner consistency than Greek or Lebanese, and often drizzled with tahini; Ülker drapes strips of sucuk — a Turkish beef sausage — over his.  (Our token vegetarian loved hers with chickpeas.)

The yogurt-based spreads are dreamy, significantly the one with ribbons of uncooked zucchini and carrots, pine nuts, black currants and lemon juice, and the celeriac — pureed celery root blended with yogurt and orange juice, topped with segments of orange and dill.

The “unfold” named Za’atar is a strained yogurt whipped with olive oil, fashioned right into a jiggly ball (harking back to labneh) and closely dusted with za’atar, the Turkish dried spice mix. Ezine is Turkey’s feta, and at Kardes it’s whipped with basil oil and lemon juice, and sprinkled with lemon zest and pistachio. Walnuts are strewn over the pink sultan — grated boiled beet root blended with yogurt. I really like the usage of nuts and pomegranate seeds so as to add crunch to the spreads, citrus and recent herbs like mint, parsley and dill. Kisir is bulgur boiled with scallions and herbs, blended with pepper paste, lemon juice and pomegranate molasses, and served with lettuce cups for scooping and wrapping. 

Vegetarian choices are scarce, however a meal could be constructed round börek, a Turkish road meals made from dough and cheese, layered and baked. Ülker piles strips of the completed pastry on a plate and provides a hunk of ezine, olives, recent cucumber spears and halved cherry tomatoes.

Two rooster, lamb or meatball kebabs are positioned on a fan of toasted pita slices and the centerpiece of a composition encircled by a mound of long-grain white rice studded with chickpeas, a tangle of salad, a grilled crimson pepper and Turkish pickle. Ülker credit the excessive warmth of the grill and the kind of charcoal he makes use of — Prime 6 — for the spectacular succulence of the skewered bite-size items of rooster and lamb, which make the ramekin of yogurt dipping sauce superfluous. 

Unexpectedly — significantly for this lamb lover — the meatballs have been the favourite of the trio; a mix of floor beef, floor veal, grated onion, just a little bread crumb and salt, they’re smeared with a little bit of tomato sauce and can provoke fond recollections of your mom’s meatloaf. Ülker says meatballs are a factor in Turkey, and completely different cities every declare to have the perfect meatballs. I’m naming them proper now Better of Nashville’s 2026 Greatest Meatball.

Kardes has one dessert that modifications seasonally. We have been fortunate to catch the peeled half quince — poached in water infused with hibiscus, clove, cinnamon sticks, quince seeds and a little bit of sugar. The completed fruit is ready in a shallow bowl of the resultant syrup and topped with mascarpone and pistachios. (At some stage in Ramadan, Ülker is making a beloved Turkish dessert often called güllac – delicate sheets constituted of starch, soaked in sweetened milk, flavored with rosewater, layered with crushed walnuts  and completed with a topping of floor pistachios and pomegranate seeds.)

The fruit dessert is known as ayva — Turkish for quince. In Nashville, it’s the identify of the restaurant Cem and Selim Ülker will open this summer time in Wedgewood-Houston — dwelling to Sushi Row (Japanese), iggy’s (Italian), Aba (Mediterranean), Pastis (French) and Dos Santos (Mexican). Fortunate us.