One of the shortcomings of the greater Upper Valley area is that we’ve got a bit of a shortage of breakfast spots, especially if you are looking for something a bit more varied than “American Diner”. But in early 2025, we had a pretty big shift in White River Junction: the former Piecemeal Pies (which, after five years of business, shuttered abruptly in 2023 during bankruptcy proceedings) finally got remodeled and re-opened as a Turkish cafe: Cappadocia Cafe. Opened by Vural and Jackie Oktay, the owners of next door Tuckerbox (which has had its own interesting voyage transitioning from a Australian-owned coffee shop to a Turkish restaurant, but hey, variety is the spice of life) and Cappadocia Bistro in Burlington, VT, Cappadocia is primarily a breakfast- and lunch-based counterpart to the more formal dinner menu of Tuckerbox, offering an array of pastries, wood-fired flatbreads, and related lighter dishes.
Walking inside, they’ve kept the same basic configuration that the space had during the Piecemeal Pie days: a central ordering counter, the primary baking area and kitchen in the rear, and a nice seating area up front that can expand out to the sidewalk during warmer months. And they’ve added a vertical roasting spit out towards the front of the restaurant (although I haven’t been there at a time when it has been in use). The nice change here has been the overall decor: in addition to Tuckerbox and Cappadocia, the owners also run Little Istanbul, the Turkish store that sells minor Turkish foodstuffs, spices, and decoration, and various good wall paintings, table decorations, and chandeliers have spruced up the space nicely, giving this more of a “Turkish cafe” feel than “refurbished bakery.”
While Cappadocia has both breakfast and lunch menus, we had come to Cappadocia for a weekend breakfast. Looking at the display cases as we came in, they’ve got a good selection of Açma (a Turkish bagel-like bread that’s soft and fluffy), Simit (another bagel-like bread that I primarily know from Turkish street vendors), and Poğaça (a soft and buttery Turkish breakfast pastry). While these looked good, I was primarily drawn to their breakfast pide selection. Pide is a Turkish, boat-shaped flatbread, similar to pizza, that is fired up in in a wood-fired oven to a good crisp, giving you a filled flatbread that’s somewhat halfway between a stuffed pita and a pizza (somewhat similar to the Georgian Khachapuri as well). Carol opted for one of their breakfast varieties: Turkish-style pastrami, egg, and cheese. This was a very satisfying breakfast: the flatbread itself is nicely flavored, and the wood-fired oven puts the perfect roasted “crown” on the bread, with a char that’s just starting to approach “burnt” but not crossing over. Add in some good Turkish pastrami (very lean, thin-sliced, and salty), a nicely-fired egg, and some bubbling Turkish cheese, and this was a great breakfast. One thing to note: this is easily enough food for two people: next time we’re splitting one.
Myself, I ordered almost the same item, a pide with sucuk (a dry, spicy, fermented sausage popular in Turkish cuisine, and a few Balkan cuisines as well, resembling something halfway between pepperoni and salami). This turned out to be a good call, since the crisped sucuk was the perfect accompaniment to the crisped flatbread, the just barely not-running egg, and the bubbly cheese. And for a bonus, it was less salty than the pastirma. I’d easily get this again, indeed, it’s probably near the top of my favorite breakfast items around the valley.
With two different pides under our belts, we didn’t really have any more stomach room, which is a bit of a shame, since we were seated right next to the bakery case which had several different fresh-made pastries and cakes that looked absolutely divine. Another time, I guess.
Overall, I liked Cappadocia a lot. It’s a very welcome addition to the area’s breakfast scene. And if you come at lunch, they’ve got a similar menu of pide, börek, and lahmacun all freshly made with more lunch-oriented set of ingredients. I’ll definitely be back.
