An icon of Beyoglu's past and present, the Çiçek Pasaji occupies a stunning rococo arcade, the original of which dates to 1876. It was constructed as a bazaar and apartment building shortly after the 1870 Beyoglu fire, when it soon became known as the Cité de Pera. After World War I, Russian aristocrats settled in alongside the cluster of florists and thus the building acquired its present name. This is also where the tradition of tables spilling out onto the street got started. The entire affair collapsed in 1978 due to neglect but was reconstructed a decade later. Today the soaring space teems with meyhanes and beer halls, staffed by a collection of eager, competing, and vociferous waitstaff. The arcade follows an "L" shape with the long portion running parallel to the adjacent Sahne Sokagi, better known by the name of the merchandise sold here: fish.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Istanbul, 1st Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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