Ali Akilli, proprietor of the Black Sea Restaurant (reviewed in last week’s Mac Weekly), grew up in Trabzon, Turkey on the coast of the Black Sea. He left Turkey for Germany, and then made his way to Roseville, Minnesota in 1990. His wife, Sema, joined him in Minnesota in 2001. In the following conversation, Ali discusses the story behind the Black Sea.
 

So what gave you the idea of opening up the Black Sea?M

Before I opened this restaurant, I was involved with the Turkish American Association. In this work, I often set up venues for people to meet and chat, sometimes at my place. When my friends would come over, they all would comment on how good my food was. The idea of the restaurant was to set up a space for people to meet while serving them good home-cooked meals. The restaurant would be like an extension of my living room.

Why did you choose this location for your restaurant?

The area is really nice, and this building suited our needs very well. I really like the neighborhood that we work and live in, and the community is very strong and supportive. We have the restaurant downstairs, and we live upstairs, which is very convenient.

So it's just you and your wife who work here?

Yes, just Sema and I. It's been so good since she came, she has great ideas about new menu items, and the quality of the food has improved greatly since she has been here. I cook all the food myself, right there (he points at the kitchen), right in front of customers' eyes. Everything but the chopping and the cleaning happens here. And I taste all of the food myself—I don’t want to give you food I don’t like.

Often when we come in, the restaurant is full. Why not expand?

Why expand? To me, this restaurant is not like a business, it's family. We work as hard as we can already and I want no advertising – why pay to sell the restaurant, good food sells itself. I also don’t want to have employees. I had one employee before my wife came, but the mindset is different. It's hard to have the place be like home, a family restaurant, if you have an employee. I work every day except Sunday, but to me it's not like work. I treat everyone here as family, as does my wife.

The prices on the menu are all very cheap. Why are your prices so low?

Food product in the U.S. is very cheap, so it's not hard to keep the prices low. And we don’t advertise. We don’t take credit cards because they charge a fee which means we would have to raise our prices by two percent. Why would we do that? We take cash or check, and if someone doesn’t have cash we tell them to pay the next time you come. Don’t go across the street to the ATM if you’ll have to pay a fee to get money. Why would I want my friends to go pay $1.50 to get cash? I grew up with five brothers and sisters, and very little money. I’m not hungry for money. I want people to have access to good food for not much money.

Speaking of the menu, how did you come up with it?

These are all foods from my area of Turkey. I worked in my family’s coffee shop in Turkey, but never worked in a restaurant before opening the Black Sea. The food I cook here is what I cook at home, what I’ve cooked since I was young. My wife, since she came, added some new items to the menu as well.

You are a vegetarian, right?

Yes, both my wife and I are vegetarian.

What are your favorite items on the menu?

I like the Turkish salad, the Turkish tabouli, the borek and the baklava.

What do you do in your spare time?

I have one day off a week, Sundays. I like looking at the internet, mostly news from Turkey, and driving around Minnesota. We close the restaurant and take one week off every winter and one month every summer to go home to Turkey.

Do you have any advice for our readers?

Do every job with your heart, not with your pocket, and you'll be happy.