Karaköy Güllüoğlu (Nadir Güllü)

Karaköy Güllüoğlu's story starts in mid-1800s Gaziantep, where Hacı Mehmet Güllü — known as Güllü Çelebi — learned the baklava trade in Aleppo and Damascus before setting up his own counter back home, a craft that passed down through the family. In 1949, fourth-generation baker Mustafa Güllü moved production to Istanbul and opened a stall in Karaköy's Havyar Han, the moment the name 'Karaköy Güllüoğlu' was born. Growing demand moved the shop into the ground floor of a Karaköy multi-storey car park in the 1970s, and in 1993 Mustafa's son Nadir Güllü opened the family's first production facility on Mumhane Caddesi. When Karaköy's square redevelopment, launched in 2021, brought down that car park building, the brand went looking for a new home and settled, as of 2023, into its current shop at Kemankeş Caddesi No:67. Nadir Güllü now chairs the company while his brother Ömer runs production, and a sixth generation — Murat, Ebru and Tuba Güllü — has joined the family business. Set within a garden and a stretch of Karaköy's older fabric, the single shop serves classic pistachio baklava, kadayıf and su böreği alongside vegan, diabetic-friendly and gluten-free options, and opens its production facility to visitors by prior arrangement.