Kemerburgaz is about a half an hour drive outside of the city and in that small section of time the landscape outside of those car windows changes entirely. For one, the traffic and car honking ceases and is replaced with a kind of peaceful suburbia induced silence and order. Kemerburgaz is a place for families and those who love the city from a distance.

Located in a strip mall is Tamirane, whose original location in Eyüp is a converted warehouse where restaurant, café, and performance space meld into one. The Kemerburgaz branch of the restaurant may be smaller, but the same industrial décor is still present.  Bare lightbulbs attached to bright red wire hang from the ceiling while the largely wooden furniture displays a minimalistic style.

On the menu items have an international disposition ranging from the simple salad all the way to wraps, burgers, and pizza. From the wood fired oven a thin crust pizza with a gratuitous amount of toppings is a notable selection. The Veal Carpaccio pizza comes with tomato and pesto sauce, melted mozzarella, ricotta, beef nuar, arugula, and parmesan that all blend together and bear down on the crust, which is almost unable to carry the delicious weight.

The other protagonist, the Tamirci Burger is a juicy beef patty with Turkish style herbs and spices that hides a hint of that charcoaled grill taste underneath a blanket of mozzarella, tomato and pesto sauce, and two puffed up buns. If all that made you thirsty, as it might, the Tamirane Lemonade will surely quench that need. Or maybe a cold beer will do, and if not, the specially produced Tamirane wines by Corvus (Kuntra-Cabernet or Çavuş Vasilaki) are also present as valid choices.

If you find your way to Kemerburgaz, drop by for lunch and take a seat (inside our outside) and enjoy a kind of organized silence that all of us sometimes need. Belediye Caddesi Kemerlife Çarşısı No.26/R, Kemerburgaz; P: (0212) 322 48 22