GG Erdal

Hasan Erdal inherited a strip of Famagusta beachfront from his father and put the cafe on it himself, table by table, the year he turned thirty. Before that he spent six seasons on the craps tables of the resort hotels, which is where the speed and the appetite came from. One spot, nearest the water, is his: he plays there and nowhere else, has refused to give it up for a wedding party and once for a film crew, and serves customers from it between rolls. A hundred games a day come off that chair. He also runs the chip evenings, from the same seat, facing the sea. A regular once arrived early to sit in it and was served, at length, standing up.