01Boil
Boil
Fill the large lower kettle of the çaydanlık and bring it to a rolling boil. The empty pot above warms in the rising steam.
Our story
A house for tea.
Maison Çay is our small tea house on Çarşı Caddesi. Get to know the place, the way we brew our tea and what it means to leave a tea for someone else.
The logo wall, painted by hand in gold.
IChapter I · The Leaf
A small glass, a warm welcome.
In Turkey, the word çay means one thing first: black tea from the Black Sea. It is brewed strong, poured into small glasses all day long, and offered before anyone thinks to ask. Our 30-lira glass belongs to that tradition, and so does the way we serve it.
At Maison Çay, that welcome continues through the menu: Turkish coffee, house lemonade, fresh fruit drinks, cold teas and a toast to share. Familiar flavours, enjoyed at your own pace.
“Strong in the pot, softened in the glass — and never refused.”
Our brewed çay, served with care.
1924
The first tea plantations are started in Rize, on the eastern Black Sea coast, from seeds brought across from Georgia.
Rize
Turkish çay is Black Sea tea: misty slopes, heavy rain, and a liquor that glows clear red in the glass.
30 ₺
a glass of brewed çay, served in a tulip glass — a small pause in the day.
IIChapter II · The Ritual
Patience, in four steps.
02Steep
Steep
Leaves go into the upper pot with a splash of boiling water. Then patience: the tea brews slowly, sitting on the kettle.
03Pour
Pour
A measure of the strong brew in a tulip glass, lengthened with hot water from below — koyu for dark, açık for light.
04Share
Share
Glasses are refilled before they are empty. In 2022 the culture of çay was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
IIIChapter III · The Town
Twenty-four centuries of harbour.
Fethiye has been a harbour for longer than it has been called Fethiye. Its history is carved into the cliffs above the town — and poured, today, into a great many tulip glasses.
c. 350 BC
Telmessos
The Lycians carve the Tomb of Amyntas into the cliff above Telmessos — the ancient city beneath modern Fethiye.
10th c.
Makri, then Meğri
The ancient name fades; the harbour town becomes Makri. Under the Ottomans it is known as Meğri.
1934
Fethiye
Meğri is renamed Fethiye in honour of Fethi Bey, one of the first pilots of the Ottoman Air Force.
1957
Rebuilt
Earthquakes in April damage much of the town. Fethiye is rebuilt around its harbour, today a busy marina.
Today
Çarşı Caddesi
Boats in the bay, Lycian tombs in the cliffs, the bazaar in the old streets — and a small house of tea at number 65A.
IVChapter IV · The House
Leave the world ‘of’f.
Look closely at the mark above our door: a little house with a roof and two initials, an M that curls into a teapot, a sprig of tea leaves in flower. Maison Çay is exactly that — a house first, a tea room second.
The gold mirror, the photographs and the tables by the window are part of the house. Settle in wherever you feel at home.
- The arch
- A tall mirror in a thin gold frame — the shape you'll find all over this website.
- The wall of photographs
- Prints strung on twine from a branch, beside the folding tables.
- The cake stand
- Glass domes on a white console, under a little sign: home made, with love.
- The corners
- Jute, pampas grass, macramé leaves and two deep papasan chairs.
VChapter V · The Hook
A tea for the next guest.
Say ‘this one’s on us’ when you pay, and leave a tea for the next guest.
15 ₺
See you on Çarşı Caddesi. We’ll have the tea ready.