After six years of trading a popular West Cumbrian restaurant has moved to a prime main street location – complete with a new patisserie.
Aspava, a Cockermouth based Turkish restaurant, has moved from its old location in a courtyard just off the town’s main street to the former Simply Drinks shop that has sat derelict for several years.
Owners Mehmet Durmus and Tracy Wilson-Durmus have majorly transformed the building, which is sat opposite the Earl Mayo monument in the centre of the town.
The pair said they were very excited to be in the new restaurant and that they hoped the local community would love the way they have brought the building back to life.
Tracy added: “We had outgrown our last premises and we didn’t own it, we only rented it, so we found this property on main street and managed to buy it.
“It was completely derelict upstairs and downstairs it needed a big revamp because it was just a normal shop previously.
“But we’re now operating over two storeys and we’ve been in the premises nearly four weeks. We’ve so far been very busy with customers and it’s been really good.”
The husband and wife team brought in a building firm to renovate the new restaurant which included the fitting of new ceilings
Downstairs, the restaurant is also set to be home to a new patisserie which will eventually offer a large range of Turkish sweets and savouries including baklava, şöbiyet, midye, sarma and havuç dilimi.
Shoppers will be able to stop by for coffee and a sweet treat in a café-style manner or pick up a sweet treat with a takeaway order.
Tracy added: “We will be properly doing the patisserie soon, we’re just waiting on our chef arriving from Turkey. We have a sponsorship licence so we’re able to support him coming to the UK to work for us.
“We’ve been a bit delayed with things but we’re also hoping to offer Turkish breakfast in the next few weeks.
“But we are selling some things in the patisserie at the moment and you can come in and buy a coffee and baklava. Eventually we will have lots of Turkish sweets and savouries available.
“People are also more than welcome to come in and have a look and see what we’ve done, but so far everything has been so good really.”
Mehmet, who has lived in Cumbria for 20 years and whose family live in Turkey, planned to travel to the country with the money to support people and purchase essentials including food, water, building materials, blankets and bedding.
After raising over £10,342 Mehmet was able to travel out and provide the support he planned to.
Tracy said: “With the money raised from the fundraiser he managed to get out and distribute it. We raised over what we were expecting to, it was phenomenal.
“It has been very difficult and we lost our home there. His dad and sister are going back over to Turkey on Monday to see what is going on now and what can be done.
“But people were just handing money to us on the street at the time, we are very lucky to live where we do.”
