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| Michael Penn / Juneau Empire |
 All smiles: Owner Haydar Suyun and Ashleigh Hale at the main bar at the new Zephyr restaurant at Second and Seward streets. |
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Zephyr owner Haydar Suyun grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, where he used to hang out in a small restaurant partly owned by his father. It was a part-time job, and a valuable introduction to management.
Suyun, 45, opened the Mediterranean-fusion restaurant Zephyr five weeks ago at Second and Seward streets. He previously ran Raven's Cafe, a late-night panini and burger joint inside the Imperial Saloon, and Talisman, a rug shop on Marine Way.
Suyun traveled the world in the 1980s working on cruise ships. He moved to Juneau five years ago from Turkey, where he ran a rug shop and polished his English by selling to American tourists.
Though relatively new, Zephyr has already started to carve out a niche in the Juneau nightlife scene. As with the old Raven's, Suyun has partnered with head chef Nick Kourtis. They've been working with K&L Distributors and Keith Crocker to create an extensive collection of international wines and European beers on the main floor, and in the elevated wine bar.
Hooligan sat down with Suyun to talk about his new restaurant. For Brady Deal's tale of a Saturday night at Zephyr, please see page 6:
Q: How did you decide to move from Raven's Cafe to a fine-dining restaurant like Zephyr?
A: I usually design my business depending on what I need, and I wanted to go somewhere and eat decent food when I got off the bar. I looked around downtown and saw there were just a few places, so I opened up the Raven's Cafe.
(Eventually) we were ready to move up. We just wanted to have our operation instead of being a concession part of the bar. We couldn't have a separate non-smoking area for our non-smoking clientele, and we couldn't serve food with silverware.
I wanted to go somewhere and have a good romantic night and drink a glass of wine. There are places like that here, but there should be more. Nick was ready. He was getting tired of cooking fries and flipping burgers. Now there's room to create things.
Q: You're Turkish, and (head chef) Nick (Kourtis) is Greek. How did those two cultures manifest themselves when creating the menu?
A: The countries are totally different backgrounds, but the Mediterranean has been the center of trade for centuries. So the countries celebrate the same things, and cook the same way with many of the same ingredients.
"The lamb was the thing that I wanted to bring in for sure. The cumin is also something I wanted to introduce. Cumin is something we use quite a bit in Turkey. In our seasoning, cumin is the secret ingredient.
Q: What has the reaction been to the menu, and what changes, if any, will that inspire?
A: People are very square when it comes to what they eat. They say that they like to try new things, but they go back to what they usually eat. To have different flavors from different countries and put them on the same place is kind of a tough job. It needs to be right on the balance, so it doesn't get too spicy or salty or funky.
We want to do what we call 'international nights.' We're working on a Greek-Turkish combo, like a eastern Mediterranean night. We want to break it up with entertainment, like a belly dancer or a bouzouki player. And then we will do some other nights: American night, Alaska night and Southern America night.
Q: Zephyr has a striking ambiance. What was your ultimate goal?
A: It was like an escape. The winters are so cold and so dark, it's hard to get out of Juneau to go somewhere warm with the right ambiance. I thought this should be our contribution to the community, an escape from the rain, so people can get away for a few hours and have a good time. That was the idea, and then we decided to introduce these new flavors, like the Mediterranean fusion twist.
Q: The interior of the restaurant is very open and airy. Was that your intention when you leased the building?
A: Our plan was to have an exposed kitchen, but the way the building is, it didn't allow us to do that. In the countries of the Mediterranean, there is no formal dining room. You have a table in the kitchen where everybody eats, and there's always room for the neighbor's kids or your friends. You come in and you open the fridge and you just share the food. We wanted to create a room like that, so people could come in and feel as if they're in our kitchen.
Q: How did you choose the color of the interior?
A: First, it was the blue, and it didn't really work out. Then we painted white, and it looked like a drugstore, a hospital. Finally, the burgundy worked out really nice.
Q: What is the story behind the large mural on the wall above the main bar?
A: Zephyr is the god of wind in ancient Greece, and I wanted to create a little image that presented the Zephyr, but I was having a hard time. We actually bought some panels made out of carved wood, a new product that looks like copper. We were going to put them behind the bar and create some wine towers in between, but it looked like a bar for a hotel reception. I found this print from Sandro Botticelli, "Primavera," and it was in the summer palace of the Medici family. Zephyr appears in the picture, so when people ask who he is, I can show them and talk about him. I asked Aaron Elmore (of Commercial Signs and Printing/Theatre in the Rough) to paint it. He did a sketch and then he finally applied the paint on the wall. Those are Alaska trees. We added some hemlocks and things.
