 Owner Mevlut Ozturk says the cafe opened in 1952, the same year that Turkey joined the NATO alliance. So they called it the NATO Lokantası, and the name stuck. That's all I know, Ozturk says. I suppose they liked NATO. Seven decades later, the hardware stores, shipyards and brothels of the neighborhood have given way to trendy cafes and hotels catering to tourists. But this restaurant never changes, Ozturk says.