Something for everyone

Across from the Smulshop is the Gulcan bakery, owned by the couple Naim. The owners are of Turkish-Bulgarian descent. They had made quite the journey before settling on the Morsweg in the early 2000s. As part of a Turkish minority group in Bulgaria, they had first moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where they lived and worked for ten years. Eventually, Mr. Naim ended up in the Netherlands, where he initially worked in construction, but was able to open a bakery soon after. Mrs. Naim tells us about the early days of the bakery, which was initially located in the same building as Lia’s family’s milk shop! When in 2011 the bakery moved to its current location, her husband named the bakery after her as a surprise: Gulcan.

The couple is well-loved in the neighborhood, and everybody stops by once in a while. The products they have on offer are exceptionally diverse; there is a wide range of food, like baklava, simit and other traditional Turkish-Bulgarian snacks, and Turkish pizza is also on the menu. In the morning, residents can buy their bread and milk at the bakery. At noon, construction workers will get their lunch there, while hungover students from the flat across the street, still dressed in their robes, will come to get their breakfast. Children buy ice cream after school. And at night, döner kebab, pizza and fries are sold in great numbers. Many people praise their ‘kapsalon’ on online forums. To get an idea, you can take a look at their Instagramaccount!

How is it possible that the snack bar and a Turkish bakery survived the downfall of so many shops? Just like before, these family businesses and shop owners work extra hard. The owners know their regular customers, just like Lia did. But that is not all. These shops are located exactly on the crossroads of the neighborhood, with on the other side of the road a student flat and the Bloemlust flat and behind them the old Wolmaranstraat and the Transvaalhof. The population density is relatively high in these places. Apparently, it’s the snacks that still keep people coming and that help shop owners survive.

There is still one shop left on the Morsweg that stands out. We turn around once more and find the building where the former shop of Lia once stood, as well as the Gulcan bakery. Not long ago, a sushi takeaway business opened, with mopeds coming and going all day long.