New York - December 29, 2004

Best of 2004: Turkish Delight

Turks & Frogs Bar

As is our custom here at DailyCandy, the week between Christmas and New Year’s will be dedicated to the greatest hits of 2004. Hey, don’t even think about calling us slackers. We’re wooooorking here.

Have a great holiday, and thank you for being such smart, opinionated, and excellent readers.

Gentle readers, this is the kind of story we hate to write.

It happens, on occasion, that we make a discovery so special we want to keep it for ourselves. So we wait, savoring our find. Then cooler heads (i.e., bigger mouths) prevail, and we spill. Our loss? Your gain.

The charming West Village antique shop Turks & Frogs has just morphed into an even more charming wine bar.

The inevitable Meatpackingization of the neighborhood? Maybe. But there will be no velvet ropes here. As it turns out, owner Osman Cakir always wanted to run a bar. So he recruited little brother Orhan, a veteran of Savann and Pasha, and got a liquor license. They’re now serving more than 50 wines from around the world, including Turkey, and snacks like fruit and cheese plates, olives, and pastrima (Turkish pastrami) — and whatever else they feel like whipping up. (It’s all very welcome-to-my-parlor here.) The space is split into two rooms: bar and tables up front; sitting room with bookshelves and backgammon boards in the back.

Good luck getting dibs on the leather sofa.

Turks & Frogs, 323 West 11th Street, between Greenwich and Washington Streets (212-691-8875).