I have always said that I’d be happy living anywhere as long as there was a Krispy Kreme and a sushi restaruant. I was ecstatic last March when Antalya got its first sushi restaurant, and it was only five minutes up the road from me. Unfortunately, not many people in Antalya share my enthusiasm for raw fish, it seems, and within a year the sushi restaurant went out of business.
But like I mentioned yesterday, turnover in Antalya is high. If something disappears, wait five minutes and something else will pop up in its place. Istanbul chain SushiCo has opened up a branch in Antalya. It looks great, but I have two issues with it: one, it’s clear on the other side of town from me; two, the prices are jaw-dropping. I think people in Istanbul are used to paying a little more for their food than people down here are. The prices at SushiCo are about double what they were at the now-defunct other sushi restaurant, which means I probably won’t be able to afford to eat there anytime soon.
But I think it’s a good trend that Istanbul restaurants and even international chains are considering Antalya as a viable place to open up new branches. Perhaps we’ll get a Wagamama or a Schlotzsky’s soon. As for Krispy Kreme, they opened up their first branch in Turkey only a few months ago, and now they’ve already got twelve more branches open, so hopefully they’ll be spidering out into other cities soon. I haven’t had a Krispy Kreme doughnut in about eight years, but I’m not desperate enough to go to Istanbul to get one.