In Istanbul, the best meals happen near water. At rooftop restaurants and crowded market stalls where the Bosphorus Strait stretches between Europe and Asia, centuries of history move with the current. That sense of place is exactly what Doved and Tammy Sexter have spent two decades recreating in Florida. Now, St. Petersburg has a seat at the table.
The EDGE District, the stretch of Central Avenue between 9th and 16th Streets, has quietly become one of the more compelling neighborhoods in Tampa Bay. Breweries, kava bars, coffee shops and casual restaurants line the walkable corridor, while murals and storefronts give the district its own rhythm. When the Moxy St. Pete opened in August 2024 as the neighborhood’s first lifestyle hotel, bringing Rose’s Coffee and Sparrow Rooftop with it, the project signaled that the district was ready for something more elevated. What had not yet arrived was a full-scale dining destination built not simply to feed guests, but to transport them somewhere else entirely.
Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine opened on Central Avenue in February 2026, bringing a richly detailed Turkish dining experience to the neighborhood. The restaurant traces its roots to Winter Park, where the original Bosphorous opened on Park Avenue in 2004. Tammy and Doved Sexter, both former Darden Restaurants executives, later purchased the business and transformed it into a family-owned brand known for authentic Turkish cuisine and richly layered interiors.
The St. Petersburg restaurant marks the company’s sixth location and second in Tampa Bay, following its opening in Tampa’s SoHo district on South Howard Avenue. Expanding into downtown St. Pete had long been part of the plan. The Sexters spent years searching for the right location before landing in the EDGE District…