The management may have changed at the newly reopened Flying Carpet Cafe in Fort Worth, but you’ll still find an authentic Turkish menu in the same cozy atmosphere. 

Managers Can Karatas and his uncle, Cengiz Yumrutas brought Turkish dishes back to the Near Southside in mid-October 2024 when they reopened a restaurant that had been closed for more than a year due to a fire.

Can Karatas is manager and chef of the Flying Carpet Cafe on Fort Worth’s Near Southside.

One of the biggest changes under Karatas and Yumrutas has been the addition of a wine and beer license, which means the Flying Carpet is no longer BYOB. However, they still offer Turkish coffee and will eventually offer hookah on the patio.

Other smaller shifts look like the expansion of the outdoor patio and the addition of several seafood dishes, including whole branzini, red snapper, and salmon. Beyond Mediterranean staples like gyros, kebabs, spinach pie and falafel, Flying Carpet features Turkish specialties like Sultan’s Delight, a dish with cubed and sauteed lamb and eggplant served with rice, and Moussaka, a variation on lasagna that includes ground lamb, beef, and eggplant. The dessert menu includes three kinds of baklava, bread pudding and künefe, a sweet and crunchy cheese pastry.

Karatas says the lamb dishes are all popular, along with the hummus, which is served with Turkish handmade bread, which is thicker than pita. It’s baked daily in-house and served warm.

Karatas shared the recipe for his favorite dish, with 360West, which is stuffed cabbage. Ground beef and rice are rolled inside individual cabbage leaves and simmered in a tomato sauce then served with a garlic yogurt.

“My mom used to make it,” he says. “It’s the best.” 

Karatas is originally from Turkey but calls North Texas home. When his uncle decided to open Istanbul Cuisine in Flower Mound in 2019, Karatas moved from the restaurant’s namesake to help.

They added a Southlake location in 2022. Two years later, Brent Hyder, the owner of the Flying Carpet Cafe’s building, reached out. The previous tenants chose to close the restaurant after the fire and Hyder, a friend of Karatas and Yumrutas, offered the space to them. They kept the building’s already-familiar name. Karatas says the log cabin home that the restaurant occupies gives a different, more authentic vibe than their other restaurants. Adding to the transporting experience is that several of the servers and cooks are Turkish.

Karatas is a hands-on chef and owner, with a constant presence in the kitchen and dining room. “I’m not the boss, I work here,” he says. 

His approach means it hasn’t taken long for friendships to form with regular guests. He also frequents Magnolia neighbors Pie Tap and Cane Rosso. 

“Always, I support local,” he says. “Local support[s] me back.”

Growing up in a family of chefs, Karatas spent plenty of time in the kitchen. He attended a high school in Turkey with a culinary emphasis. 

“It was my dream,” Karatas says. “Now [I’m] living my dream.”

Later this year, Karatas is adding a new title to his current role: father. He and his girlfriend are expecting a baby girl this spring.

Stuffed Cabbage
Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked white rice
• 8 cabbage leaves
• 1 pound ground beef (can substitute ground turkey)
• 1 onion, chopped lends flavor and texture to the filling
• 2 10.75-ounce cans of condensed tomato soup
• 1 teaspoon sumac
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Preparation:

1. Boil the cabbage leaves for 8-9 minutes.
2. Make the filling by cooking the ground beef and sauteing it with the onions.
3. Add the rice to the ground beef mixture.
4. Fill cabbage leaves with the ground beef and rice mixture and tightly roll.
5. Make the sauce by adding the sumac, salt and pepper to the tomato soup in a medium bowl.
6. Place the rolls in a skillet and cover with sauce. Cook for 30-40 minutes.