Kahvehane — Turkey's traditional coffee house

A kahvehane is a traditional Turkish coffee house, historically a social gathering place for conversation and games such as backgammon (tavla) and cards, rather than a quick-service café. The traditional order is Turkish coffee (türk kahvesi): very finely ground coffee simmered slowly and unfiltered in a small pot called a cezve, producing a thick, strong cup served with the grounds settled at the bottom.

Turkish coffee is traditionally served in a small cup alongside a glass of water, and it's common to be asked how much sugar you'd like — sade for none, orta for medium, şekerli for sweet — before it's brewed, since the sugar is added during preparation rather than stirred in afterward.

A well-known custom tied to Turkish coffee is having the settled grounds left in the empty cup read for fortune-telling patterns (fal) once the coffee is finished — a social tradition rather than a formal practice, but a widely recognized part of the culture around the drink. Turkish coffee culture and tradition is inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.