A Burlington restaurant has gone from serving Turkish-style pizza to being a hub and delivery service for much-needed items that go on to help victims of last week’s earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
Yesim Erkus, the owner of Pizza Boat on Fairview St., leapt into action upon hearing about the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck her home country on Feb. 6. Alongside her chef and social media manager, Erkus quickly decided to begin accepting donations of clothing, blankets, and other necessities from Burlington residents, as part of a coordinated effort with other restaurants, the Turkish Entrepreneurs and Professionals Association of Canada (TEPAC), and many volunteers.
The items are taken to warehouses where volunteers sort and pack them, to go onto airplanes heading for the devastated country. Erkus has heard that 3 million blankets have already made their way across the ocean.
While clothing is not currently needed, as much as already been sent, Erkus says that the most-needed items right now are sleeping bags, blankets, tents, diapers, baby food, sanitary pads, and over-the-counter medications (painkillers, for example).
Erkus and her chef, Ali, both have family still in Turkey, though Erkus says her father is in Istanbul, far from the devastation, while Ali’s family are from region struck by the earthquake, but are safely staying with other relatives away from their city.
Pizza Boat only opened a year and a half ago, and Erkus is there all day, every day. She is a new restauranteur, having been educated in business and law, played professional basketball for Istanbul’s Galatasaray women’s team, and worked at a cosmetics company along the way. After her parents sent her to high school in Texas, she ended up in Syracuse on a basketball scholarship, and when upstate New York proved to be too cold for her liking, she ended up studying business at Babson College. After more education and a number of moves, her family decided to spend more time in Canada in 2010.
The family imported food under their company Marca Food Services, flying sea bass and sea bream from Turkey to Canada in less than 24 hours. Then, they moved into a private line of spices, specially packaged with ceramic grinders.
Later, when Erkus was thinking of getting into the restaurant business, she first did a stint at Tim Horton’s to learn about the business and what customers want. “I did customer analysis there,” Erkus notes.
She then wrote a number of business plans for various types of restaurant: fish and chips, donair, and Turkish pide (or pizza boats). How did she land on pizza boats? “Playing with dough is fun!” Erkus says. She signed the lease for her space in Feb. 2019 — and then we all know what came next. COVID.
Luckily, though, Erkus got contractors in before it became difficult to find materials and workers; and because everything else was shutdown, she was right there with them, asking how she could help build the walls, put in the kitchen or the floors (“After they let me break it,” she says of the original floor).
Erkus helped sponsor Ali to get him to Canada to become Pizza Boat’s chef; he had previously worked at a kebab restaurant in Turkey that her family loved to eat. His good references and international experience working in Qatar sealed the deal. They make nearly everything from scratch (the little noodles of spun pastry needed for the kunefe, a sweet cheese dessert, were brought over from Turkey by Erkus’ father). Even the flour used for the dough is a special blend of three kinds of flour.
Pizza Boat has already participated in Taste of Burlington several times already, and Erkus is excited to be part of this winter’s Taste of Burlington. She notes that the community support she has experienced since opening Pizza Boat has been great. That support has continued by way of the donations coming into the restaurant to be sent to Turkey, which Erkus clearly greatly appreciates. She was particularly touched that Mayor Meed Ward had reposted one of Pizza Boat’s social media calls for donations.
For those who would like to help, Erkus suggests any monetary donations go through the Red Cross (“then they get the tax benefit”), though she has also taken customers’ monetary donations to TEPAC. The aforementioned tents, sleeping bags, blankets, baby food, diapers, sanitary pads, and painkillers can still be dropped off at Pizza Boat, 4490 Fairview St. And while you’re there, we suggest trying a pizza boat and kunefe.
