Depot 62

It’s pretty standard to find a dining room setup in a furniture store, but it’s not every day that you can actually sit down and have a meal there. And it’s even less often that the meal is something other than IKEA’s famous meatballs. But at Depot 62 in Manchester Center, Vermont, you can enjoy Turkish and Mediterranean food while sitting among handwoven rugs and designer couches.

Alp Basdogan, the owner of Depot 62, is a designer and importer originally from Turkey. He opened the store in 2005 after moving from New York to Vermont. The small café serves traditional Turkish food such as hummus, kebab, and güvec, a slow-cooked stew often cooked in a vessel of the same name. Many of the ingredients, from lamb to maple syrup, come from local producers.

“Spreading love. Connecting people,” is how Basdogan described the mission of Depot 62 to Upcountry Magazine. At the heart of the café sits a large table covered with hammered copper. This communal table has a great view of Depot 62’s wood-burning oven, which turns out their meats and freshly-made pita.