Its architecture is almost deliberately undistinguished. There is little attempt to filter people through taste or lifestyle. You enter, see what has been cooked, choose, sit, eat. The important thing is not the design of the room but the low threshold for entering it. This becomes even more interesting in Istanbul’s municipal restaurants. I remain fascinated by the absence of the architecture of charity. These are not spaces visibly designated for “the poor.” Students come. Pensioners come.
