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DALLAS &mdash; For just over two years, Elif and Enis Kacor have served homemade Turkish cuisine on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre as the owners of Istanbul Grill.
				Now, it&rsquo;s the Back Mountain&rsquo;s turn to get a taste of what the Kacors are cooking. 
				A ribbon-cutting on Friday ushered in the next chapter of the husband-and-wife team&rsquo;s business: a second Istanbul Grill, located on Twin Stacks Drive in Dallas.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve lived in big places all our lives, we wanted to branch out,&rdquo; said Elif Kacor. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve done pretty well in the Back Mountain so far.&rdquo;
				Istanbul Grill&rsquo;s second location actually opened its doors back in March, but the COVID-19 pandemic pulled the rug out from under Elif and Enis almost immediately.
				&ldquo;We opened our doors and then, same day, we had to close,&rdquo; Elif said. &ldquo;It was very hard.&rdquo;
				The Kacors would bounce back from that bit of rotten luck, opening their doors again in both Wilkes-Barre and Dallas when Luzerne County entered the &ldquo;green phase&rdquo; of Gov. Tom Wolf&rsquo;s COVID-19 recovery plan in June.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a lot of customers that came back,&rdquo; Elif said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been really wonderful.&rdquo;
				Elif and Enis cook up their cuisine in the mornings before opening their restaurant. Everything&rsquo;s homemade, right down to the baskets of Turkish bread available at every table.
				Istanbul Grill also offers a bit more of a cultural experience in the form of live music on Fridays and Saturdays. At Friday&rsquo;s ribbon-cutting ceremony, music played and a group of belly dancers performed on the restaurant&rsquo;s outdoor patio.
				Jenny Hetro, the executive director of the Back Mountain Chamber, was thrilled at the latest addition to the Back Mountain&rsquo;s business scene.
				&ldquo;I think that adding Istanbul Grill is a really great way for us to better represent how diverse this area really is,&rdquo; Hetro said. &ldquo;The response has been great, and people will get to step outside their comfort zones and try something new.&rdquo;
				The original Istanbul Grill opened up in March of 2018, just two years prior to the expansion into Dallas.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve done well in Wilkes-Barre, and a lot of our customers came from outside of the city,&rdquo; Elif said. &ldquo;Now we could reach new customers, as well.&rdquo;
				Although both locations employ a full-time staff, Elif and Enis keep plenty busy cooking and maintaining the businesses, hardly getting a moment to catch their breath.
				But according to Elif, it&rsquo;s all worth it.
				&ldquo;This is a seven-days-a-week job, it&rsquo;s a lot,&rdquo; Elif said. &ldquo;But we love our customers and we love our food, and we&rsquo;ve loved this experience. We can&rsquo;t wait to keep going.&rdquo;

Istanbul Grill opens in Back Mountain