The late-night pizza and pasta joint Milano (405 NE 45th St.) abruptly closed and Fitchi House Eastern Cuisine is moving in. They painted the façade a canary yellow that really pops and brings life the the block. The Fitchi House website is still under construction but it appears that we’re getting a new Turkish café serving meat pies, flat breads, desserts, tea, and coffee. That being said, the sign simply reads “Eastern Cuisine.” Without limiting themselves to “Turkish” or “Mediterranean” there’s a lot of room to serve just about anything!
Fitchi House joins two other Turkish options in the neighborhood. Their website suggests something more modern and fast-casual than Bodrum Bistro but certainly more traditional sit-down than Ziya’s Turkish Kitchen which is a VERY well hidden cash-only takeout counter that’s apparently tucked behind Julia’s on 44th. I had never heard of Ziya’s before Googling Turkish places in the neighborhood. It surprised me to learn that Bodrum Bistro wasn’t alone!
Other than their own website, the only internet presence I could find for Fitchi House is a Facebook page for a small restaurant with the same name just outside Istanbul. Based on the logo, some identical photos, and rough Google translations, I’m confident that our new neighbors at Fitchi House have some sort of connection to this little place in Istanbul.
I tried to email and and call for more information about opening plans but couldn’t get through to anyone. Keep an eye out for this new restaurant to open and stop in to welcome them to the neighborhood!
The owners of the business are the same or partially the same as the owners for Milano.
It looks like this might actually be a Turkmen (Turkemenstani?) not Turkish restaurant. Both Fitchi and Somsa are Turkmen dishes see https://turkmenkitchen.com/en/2014/12/17/fitchi-meat-pies/