SPENCER — When Mustafa Kocaman fled his native Turkey, a restaurant in Spencer was not even an afterthought.

“I came from Turkey eight years ago,” Kocaman said. “I escaped from Turkey where we have a dangerous dictator (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan). He put my wife in jail two times because we did not support him. We are against him. We like democracy.

“(Erdoğan) said, ‘I am king. I am leader of Islam.’ No, he is president, that is it.”

Kocaman said that Turkish police came to his home and took everything he had. He fled to the U.S. with only $1,500 in his pocket and settled in Irvine, California. 

“When I got to America, I didn’t know about running a restaurant,” Kocaman said. “One guy called me and said,’ Do you want to work with me?’ I say what are you doing? He said he had a food truck, so I did for two or three months.”

He learned how to cook hamburgers and sold them from that food truck until one day, he received an offer to work for another food truck with a 50/50 ownership stake. 

Kocaman accepted because he needed the money to send back to his family that remained in Turkey.

Work opportunities dragged Kocaman across the U.S., but he wanted to get out of the food truck business and have something a little more stable. 

“I did Uber for maybe three months and DoorDash for maybe three months,” Kocaman said. “I cut grass for a few months. Now I am 51. I did 16 different jobs. I have to work.”

He started to grow weary from the grind, so he prayed. Kocaman is a devout Muslim and has faith that Allah will help him. When he prayed, he said, “I am tired. I don’t understand. I need money. I want to sell something.”

Fortune found Kocaman after discovering a paper left behind by a friend in his care. It was about baklava and had a phone number on it. 

“I call (the number) and say, ‘Sir, My name is Mustafa,'” Kocaman said. “I understand you are selling baklava. They said, ‘Yes, we are in Canada. We want to come to America.'”

Kocaman felt he could sell baklava but did not have much start-up money, so they offered him a test run. They sent him a small pallet.

“In one week, I sold them all,” Kocaman said. 

So, the next week, they sent him a large pallet.

“I came here (N.C.) and am selling baklava, but I don’t have a place,” Kocaman said. “I saw an ad for an ice cream shop in Harrisburg.”

It was 11 p.m. 

“In Turkey, you can call 24/7, but in America, you should not call (that late),” Kocaman said. “I sent him a message. He sent me one back in three minutes. OK, you can come tomorrow.”

Kocaman’s business grew, and he expanded into neighboring spaces. The ice cream and baklava he was selling were a hit, but he started exploring opening a restaurant to sell authentic Turkish cuisine.

He found the location on Salisbury Avenue in Spencer by the intersection of Long Ferry Road, agreed on a rental price, secured the location, and Mustafa’s Place was born. 

“My friends asked me why I would rent this space,” Kocaman said. “I said, who knows? Allah knows. God knows. If Allah wants, he sends me a customer. If my food is good, people will come to eat original Turkish.”

He’s been open for several weeks now and said he sees new faces daily. He liked Spencer so much that he rented a place just down the street. 

“I like it here,” Kocaman said. “People are good. I love the family here.”

People are taking notice. Faris Alrazaa stopped in on Wednesday and bought five chicken kofte sandwiches. 

“We used to go to the one in Charlotte,” Alrazaa said. “We heard they were going to open one up here, and we were like (heck) yeah, it will be closer to us.”

Alrazaa lives in Rowan County but is originally from the Arabian Peninsula. 

“It is really authentic and closer to our Mediterranean food,” Alrazaa said. “I am from Yemen, Middle Eastern, so we like this type of food.”

Kocaman’s menu features lamb chops, kebabs and sandwiches he prepares himself with fresh ingredients. He insists on authentic recipes because he knows he is the only Turkish spot in town and wants to remain faithful to that. The Adana kebab is named after his hometown in Turkey.

Mustafa’s Place is located at 701 Salisbury Ave. in Spencer.