№ 214 — Our story
Two brothers.
One grill.
No plan B.
Selim and Kerem Arık grew up above their uncle’s grill in Şanlıurfa, where the isot pepper dries on rooftops every September. They came to London in 2009, worked other people’s fires for five years, and opened Isotvale in a former tyre shop on Kingsland Road with one mangal, twelve tables and their mother’s baklava.
№ 01 — Timeline
Twelve years,
one fire
2009
Arrival
The brothers land in London with two knives and a bag of isot from home.
2014
Doors open
The mangal arrives from Gaziantep by lorry. Twelve tables, one menu card, cash only.
2017
The counter
We knock through to the shop next door and add eight stools facing the coals.
2020
Through the window
During lockdown the fire never goes out — skewers are handed through the front window.
2023
Atlas Nights
Thursday regional specials start, and sell out by nine within a month.
2026
Today
Same fire, same knife, a team of twenty-two and a ledger that still fits on one page.
№ 02 — The family
Who’s at the fire
SA
Selim Arık
Grill master
Has turned every opening-day skewer since 2014. Seasons the mince by smell and won’t explain how.
KA
Kerem Arık
Front of house & buyer
Runs the room and the suppliers. Drives to Wales twice a month to choose the lamb himself.
NA
Nur Arık
Pastry & künefe
Their mother. Rolls forty sheets of baklava dough each morning and is the only one allowed near the syrup.
№ 03 — Where it comes from
Short list,
long friendships
We buy from the same handful of people every week. If they can’t supply it, it comes off the ledger until they can.
Lamb & mutton
Cwm Eira Farm
Gwynedd, Wales
Chicken
Hollow Lane Poultry
Suffolk
Oak charcoal
Wealdwood Coppice
Kent
Isot pepper
Arık family rooftops
Şanlıurfa
Pistachio
Antep cooperative
Gaziantep
Flour
Wessex stone mill
Wiltshire