RESERVATION
Reservation is not mandatory, but if you make a reservation, life will be easier for both you and us!
We like to call ourselves;
a 'Village Restaurant' with rooms,
cooking Mediterranean dishes with regional ingredients in the Aegean Basin.
In 2018 before moving to Caferli Village, the year I founded Çiy, the fundamental goal was to be simple and be in harmony with nature.
I embarked on this journey inspired by a morning dew I saw, shining on a vine leaf, (morning dew is what Çiy means in Turkish and my name Damla, standing for a water drop) believing in the symbolism of Indigenous names, spreading over the spirit of the meaning to the person, the brand, the place it is given to.
Getting impressed and inspired by the simplicity of dew drops, to remember the cycle of seasons, to understand we are part of the nature and capable of existing without competing the time and nature, I wanted to bring the seasons of the geograpy we live in to our plates at the table.
Over time, under this roof, I realized what we are trying to do couldn't be limited to the kitchen alone, only then I understood this is a holistic approach in life;
From answering the phone for reservations, passing through the paved road when coming to the village, the texture of the fabric used in the service, the choice of ingredients for cooking, the egg cartons we recycle, the reduction of glass waste by serving water in a pitcher, the reused furniture in the rooms, the coffee producer, the music we listen at the restaurant, waste management, the rainwater harvestinh, and the communication among the team—we created a united whole with a soul, a living entity.
While hosting our guests, we continue our journey not by exhausting the valley we are in but by healing it.
restaurant
Describing Çiy in a few words has not been easy for me until today because we were not established with strategically determined principles. We laid out Çiy's essential stones one by one on the road, together with the team.
I envisioned a place where those tired of keeping up with the spirit of the times would 'remember to slow down.'
We began in a valley in the Aegean, as my mother would say, by cooking 'antin kuntin' (simple and plain) meals. We prepared our dishes with what the producer's field and bazaars offered in our region, with what our garden wanted to share with us, and with what was on our butcher's counter.
Establishing Çiy, we said 'a gift from nature' and wanted it to 'nourish the nature while nourishing from the nature.' Today, we are well aware that we do not live in a world where we can sustainably exist when the offerings of the universe to us humans can no longer meet our demands. That's why we set up our tables with the intention of “healing what we can touch”. Without haste, with real ingredients, with respect for the time of each product, and without straying far from the region, we process the products we find and serve them according to our own methods.
menu
guesthouse
From the very first day, the Kitchen has been the heart of Çiy. Today, we have expanded the Philosophy of 'Çiy' , we started in the kitchen to the entire Çiy Guest House, getting inspired from the harmony of seemingly unrelated ingredients on the plate; we have created an eclectic aesthetic perception by combining the old and beautiful with the new and functional to improve the already existing items.
Three of our rooms were restored and improved in accordance with the architecture of Caferli Village houses. We named them in homage to the fresh herbs I love to use in the kitchen and that are abundant in the valley we are in: Itır, Mercanköşk, and Sumak. (Meaning geranium, marjoram and sumac)
In our village rooms, we primarily use antique and vintage sets, ensuring to preserve the past with elegance. The rooms we describe as 'Zeytinli' (Olive) are designed in a relatively modern style in the new building.
