Having operated its restaurant in Wellesley as long as Café Mangal has—25 years—its owners have become recognizable not just in town but well beyond the 555 Washington St., location.
Executive Chef Mehmet Ozargun, who spoke to me recently at the restaurant along with his parents (Berna and Omer) and co-owner Gul Bahceci, shared a story about going to the doctor recently. When the physician learned who Mehmet was, he said: “I love your place, I have to keep you healthy.”
On another occasion, a first date in Boston, a regular customer who happened to be sitting next to Mehmet and the woman gushed about the restaurant. “My date was impressed,” he said.
But what isn’t impressive about Café Mangal?
The Mediterranean-American restaurant, with its heavy Turkish influence based on the Ozargun family’s background, is one-of-a- kind in the area. The restaurant’s focus has shifted over the years from initially being a coffee shop, to serving lunch and dinner, to refocusing on lunch, dinner take-out, and catering.
The look and feel of the spotless restaurant, from the classy background music and table decor to walls alive with family-and-friends photos and art collected during vacations, feels of another time even as it welcomes customers in the 2020s.
The Ozarguns were lured to Wellesley from Turkey in the 1998 after Mehmet followed older brother Evren to Babson College. While at Babson, Mehmet wrote a business plan for Café Mangal’s evolution as a restaurant with dinner service; his brother works in the financial industry.
Berna said neither she nor her husband had been in the restaurant business in Turkey, but that her sister-in-law had a restaurant and Berna had always dreamed of having a coffee shop. Their family in Turkey had been in the restaurant business since the 19th century, and cooking is a big part of Turkish culture, she said.
Berna spotted the space at 555 Washington St., which was empty after having been home to a pasta restaurant, and the rent was reasonable for a new venture. It took about a year for Café Mangal to open, first as a coffee shop with pastries. Then simple sandwiches were added. The next thing you knew it was an upscale cafe, then a restaurant offering fine dining and Mediterranean cuisine (adjusted for American palates) by 2003 with an expanded kitchen.
“We felt welcomed from the start,”Berna said.
Evolution of the restaurant
Even though it had morphed from a café into a full-scale restaurant, the owners decided to keep the name Café Mangal since the brand was so well known by then. The word “mangal,” by the way, comes from a Turkish cooking implement similar to a French braising pot.
On-site dinners continued until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with Café Mangal ramping up take-out during that time, and keeping that focus thereafter. The lunch and dinner menus continued to be different.
Special private events picked up as the pandemic was winding down, “as people felt more comfortable eating out with their own family members and friends,” said Mehmet, who learned to cook from his mother as well as an outside consultant/mentor, and at Johnson & Wales University, where he studied restaurant management. Café Mangal made the strategic decision to focus on such events rather than returning to regular nighttime dining.
During the days, Café Mangal is a legendary “ladies who lunch” spot, though the restaurant attracts a variety of customers, including families visiting local college students. The restaurant serves a good number of regulars, some who come every Saturday, for example, or even multiple times per week. Café Mangal has also attracted its share of celebrities, from athletes to actors to local TV news anchors.
Omer adds that Café Mangal appeals to many customers, from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, from surrounding communities. He and other members of the family and team expressed gratitude for support from the community over the years, including during the pandemic.
“Our motto is ‘Smile, Share and Serve,’ and we think that keeps people coming back,” said Omer, who finds a certain kinship with other longtime food businesses in town like The Linden Store, Captain Marden’s, and Wasik’s Cheese Shop. “It’s not a place where people go, eat something, and leave quickly. They come here, they listen to the music, they look at paintings, they talk to us about various things… it makes it more enjoyable.”
Café Mangal is one of the few BYOB (bring your own bottle) establishments in town. The owners had considered applying for an alcohol license when the town changed criteria for smaller restaurants, but in the end decided not to. Many customers prefer to bring their own, often expensive wine, and the restaurant would have had to invest in gaining expertise in this area if it were to satisfy such patrons.
“[Being BYOB] makes us more unique. Imagine you are saving a bottle in your cellar for a special occasion and you can bring it to Café Mangal to pair with great food,” Mehmet said.
When asked about whether there are plans to change anything significantly at the restaurant, or even expand to another location, Mehmet laughed and said. “What we’re doing is keeping us pretty busy.”
What’s more, Berna said, expanding their boutique restaurant would take away from the family atmosphere.
“Most customers come here for good food and atmosphere, but also for the connection between us and them,” she said.
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