Today we’d like to introduce you to Elif Ekin.
Hi Elif, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Years ago, I woke up with the phrase, “You are going to build a center, A center for wandering spirits looking for a place to call home.” I knew I wanted to build a space where people could gather, feel safe, and loved. The Wise dragonfly is the overall umbrella company for the whole building. It is a creative collective with Kahve Café as the anchor store on the main floor. The second floor consists of micro-businesses, art studios, and massage therapists. The main floor can be rented for events and gatherings as well as our multi-use room on the second floor and our loft on the third floor. I named it the Wise Dragonfly to pull in the old wisdom of gathering, community, and growth balanced w the dragonfly element of transformation. Our multi-use room on the second floor and the Dragon’s Loft can be rented by the hour or with a membership program of 5, 10 or 15 hours a month. We have various amenities with our rooms such as: a full set of charka sound bowls, 2 hand-tied drums (bear & buffalo), tuning forks, massage tables, and Photo studio supplies (9 ft & 5 ft pull-down screens).
I affectionately call my businesses and tenants of the Wise Dragonfly, The Dragons of Downtown. We have become a small family and because of this, we are able to create a foundation to grow together. When one business grows, it lifts the others.
Kahve Café is my pandemic Pivot. When the world shut down, so did all the restaurants and cafes which sort of killed the baklava business. If I was to keep this baklava business from dying, I had to pivot and pivot hard. I had been saying for years that I had wanted a Victorian downtown to be able to house all the things that I do and one presented itself in June 2020. It took until February of 2021 to be able to get keys, but I needed the time to really work out what I really wanted the café to embody. People had asked me for years to open a Turkish restaurant, but I knew I didn’t want to do all that. A Turkish Café was doable. For years, friends would come over to my house for Turkish tea and coffee and just stay for hours talking because it felt like home. That was the essence I wanted to infuse the café: the feeling of home and family. Turkish Hospitality begins in the home, and therefore having a Victorian home was an important element for the environment. I want people to feel like that are family and it has been lovely to see
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Yes and No. I feel like there is definitely a pendulum that swings between things being very easy to things being very hard. It was honestly very easy to renovate and furnish the Victorian once the work began. Our landlord is and has always been one of our biggest supporters, believing in this vision from the get-go. I jumped into this whole project really not knowing all that it would entail to get it up and going. That probably helped because if I had known then what I know now, I may not have done it.
Navigating all the rules, regulations, certificates, compliance, etc for setting up not only a cafe, but a collective and a residence for two live-in tenants, was enough to make my brain explode. In addition to this, we were trying to convert a Victorian into a cafe with 115-year-old plumbing and electricity after it had been inhabited by squatting heroin addicts. Despite all this, we were able to complete all the things (set up, renovation, furnish) in 2 months and opened in late June 2021.
One of the things I didn’t anticipate was how the multiple elements existing in the building would get along. We had our cafe staff, our resident tenants, and our micro businesses/artists. There were many times when it was hard for everyone to play nice in the sandbox. The more we grew, the more we understood who we should have or should not have in the building. As the residents have shifted out and the building is completely a business, things got easier.
Lastly, having enough money is always an obstacle. Running and staffing a Cafe in addition to the Collective is always fraught with so many random expenses. Securing microloans has helped so much and enabled us to expand and grow. We always seem to land on our feet but, man, do we work hard to make it happen! It helps to have such a good team to help me.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an Artist and Art Historian. These days I call myself a Culinary Artist and have built a successful baklava company, Bohemian Baklava, for the past 8 years. I punk out Turkish baklava with different flavor infusions such as dried fruit, beer, candy and chocolate. It is this creativity and out-of-the-box thinking that has enabled me to pivot so fast and so hard in the midst of a pandemic. I LOVE LOVE LOOOOVVE creating new food products or drinks and introducing them thru the cafe. We have brought the Turkish hot sand machine to Salt Lake City to cook our coffees to order. It has been fascinating to watch people come specifically to see the machine and see how it works.
Our vision for the Dragonfly is also attempting a new way to do business on the micro and macro level. Micro with regards to individual studios and part-time hours balanced with the Macro Vision of hosting bigger events that move through the whole house. Originally, my intention for The Dragonfly was to create an environment where healing businesses as well as linear (in the box type) businesses could coexist and balance each other. There are many co-working spaces that are one or the other, but not incorporating both. It is my belief that Healers would benefit and ground by being around Business focus businesses. And, that those Linear businesses might be elevated a bit to dabble into things they might not understand with being around healers and energy workers.
If you were to ask my mom what sets me apart from others, she would say that I run straight toward things that scare me, not away. I am not afraid to take risks.
I am a single mom of a teenager who has become quite the sidekick with me as we run this new café business venture. I am of the mentality that if I want Mina to go after her dreams, no matter how hard, I must first step in to show that it can be done. I have watched her grow from being part of this adventure and learned that things always work out if you try. Her learning that lesson at such a young age is something that I am most proud of.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Anyone is welcome to be part of the Wise Dragonfly. We are more than just a community or collective, we are a family. If this place calls to you to base your business in or to rent for events/classes, then shoot us an email at wisedragonflyslc@gmail.com.
Collaborations with the cafe are always fun! I love creating food and product for other businesses. All our products can be sold in a wholesale capacity, whether it is our imported teas or our fresh-baked confectionaries! If you want to collaborate with Kahve cafe, please email us at kahvecafeslc@gmail.com.
I like to think of a visit to The Wise Dragonfly and Kahve Cafe like visiting your old quirky aunt who has traveled the world, collected eclectic treasures to decorate the house. I want it to feel like you have come home, like visiting long lost family. It is like walking into another
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wisedragonfly.com
- Instagram: wisedragonflycollective
- Facebook: Wise Dragonfly
- Other: www.kahvecafeslc.com
Image Credits
Cali Warner
