Last week, my parents back in Ankara, Turkey, said farewell to a long time acquaintance, Resat Onat, the founder of Piknik, the legendary charcuterie shop/cafeteria that marked a period in the history of Ankara's Kizilay, now long gone.
What follows is a brief rendition of Piknik's story written by Yalcin Ergir.
The whole piece, which says a lot more, could be found here, in Turkish.
Resat Onat, after spending years working in various kitchens, opened Piknik in 1953 on Tuna Caddesi, Kizilay with his brother Vahit.
For it's time, Piknik was unique. Chef Tanas Mastakas brought in from Istanbul was serving delicious hors d'oeuvres, delicacies, sandwiches to now extinct crowds of Kizilay wondering around in their best outfits and with their families, greeting one another. Introducing countertop service to Ankara, Onat first had trouble acquiring a license, without knowing that later on, Piknik would coin the term and become a license category itself.
Service in Piknik, by clean shaven men in white jackets and black ties, was extraordinary. Resat and Vahit brought in chefs and staff from established Istanbul restaurants like Markiz, Degustasyon, Orman and from the Italian embassy to form an exemplary team. Chef waiter Vasil Lupi spoke 5 languages fluently, sang songs in Albanian to the guests.
A hundred people worked in Piknik those days, in double shifts for 364 days a year. They only closed on 10th of November, Ataturk Memorial Day, leaving behind a portrait of the leader decorated with red and white flowers on the window display. They seared, sauteed, grilled sishs and sausages, day and night. Over a thousand sandwiches were sold every day. One summer Resat and Vahit set up a Carpigiani ice cream machine, weighing 750 kilo, in front of the store, serving sundaes to excited crowds lining up all the way to Buyuk Sinema. They were the first ones to pour an espresso, to wrap sandwiches in white wax paper and put red Piknik logos on plastic bags. They cooked and prepared their very own potato chips and mustard. Chef Tanas introduced catfish fry and stuffed mackerels to Ankara.
Thanks to their entrepreneur sprit, Resat and Vahit had Pasabahce (the leading glass manufacturer in Turkey) produce 3000 goblets, of their very own design, to serve ice cold, local beer, that quickly became a Piknik classic.
During his routine visits to Is Bank across the street, they served fresh grapefruit juice to the Prime Minister Ismet Inonu. One day, upon sending grapefruit supremes in a bowl with a spoon instead of the glass of juice, Vahit was called over to the bank to teach the skill he learned from his American wife to Inonu who enjoyed the presentation a great deal. Following, Piknik started to send cases of grapefruit, straight from the chilled caves of Urgup where they were stored, to the Prime Minister's house every week.
Advocating a team or a political party was prohibited in Piknik, it's doors were open to all of Ankara. Egg & cheese aficionado Americans, actors, actresses, musicians, sportsmen, diplomats, clerks, bankers, politicians, students, even nuns sat in small tables of Piknik next to each other from 6:30 in the morning till 22:30 close everyday, until the political and economical turmoil of the 70's shook the city.
By that time Resat and Vahit also owned RV, one of the most prominent restaurants in Ankara, who has received the likes of Sophia Loren and Henry Kissinger in it's heyday. In mid 80's Resat, buried in debt, shut down Piknik, and moved to US with $1000 in his pocket, and stayed till 1993, working as a waiter in cheap, run-down restaurants.
Upon returning to Turkey and closing his debts, Resat, now in his 80's, opened Piknik once again, as a small storefront, with help from her daughters and friends. It didn't survive long, but enough to offer me a number of lunches, of sausage sandwiches, smeared with Russian salad and platters of tiny pieces of liver, fried to perfection.