Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine to delight Hamlin

Much to nearby foodies’ delight, Winter Park-based restaurant Bosphorous is the newest tenant slated for the Hamlin community.

Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine — co-owned by husband-and-wife pair Doved and Tammy Sexter, as well as Chris Southern — has signed a lease for a 3,000-square-foot restaurant space off New Independence Parkway and Hamlin Groves Trail. This will be the fourth location for the from-scratch kitchen chain, which also has locations in Winter Park, Dr. Phillips and Lake Nona. 

“We have actually looked at the (Hamlin) location years ago when deciding on our Lake Nona site looking to expand,” Doved Sexter said. “At that point, we didn’t really see the huge growth potential that’s developed out there and we ended up ultimately going with Lake Nona. When we were about nine months into Lake Nona, we started looking for a fourth location and kind of compared Oviedo to West Orange. … We saw a big opportunity to supplement our Dr. Phillips location out that direction.

“(Boyd Development) really seems to have a great handle on what that part of town really needs,” he said. “They’re just putting together a dynamic mix of restaurants and moving very fast, which is exciting for us. We want the competition, we want other people around us because it pulls people in the area.”

Plans are being finalized, and the Sexters expect them to be in the permitting phase within the next few weeks. The current timeline has Bosphorous’ Hamlin location set to open in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the restaurant will have about 50 employees. Bosphorous also has plans to expand to Lake Mary and Oviedo.

Sexter describes Bosphorous as a polished-casual restaurant, which also has a full bar with cocktails and happy hour daily from 4 to 7 p.m. The restaurant is known for its authentic Turkish food, including lavas (hollow bread), hummus, falafel, chicken sis kebaps and lamb shanks.

“We decorate with handmade Turkish lamps, and we have silk carpets and handmade copper tables, so you get a lot of that kind of initial, ‘Wow, this is really nice,’” Doved Sexter said. “Our staff is really trained to give people a tour as if they’re a tour guide, quite honestly. We want people to feel like they’ve literally dined in Turkey, but yet they’re in Central Florida.”