A meyhane or pothouse (from ) is a traditional restaurant or bar in Turkey, Balkans, Azerbaijan and Iran. It serves alcoholic beverages like wine, rakı, vodka, or beer, with meze and traditional foods.
Etymology Meyhane means "wine house" and is composed of two Persian words: (wine) and (house).Meyhane, Etymological dictionary of modern Turkish
The word entered the Serbian and Bulgarian languages as mehana (механа) and in Macedonian as (). In the Bosnian language, the word is used. In Serbian, the word is considered archaic, while in Bulgarian, it refers to a restaurant with traditional food, decoration, and music.
Ottoman Empire
Meyhane (Lisān-ı Osmānī: , ) appeared during the time of the Ottoman Empire and rapidly increased in popularity, becoming an institution that housed all kinds of people from different segments of society. In the beginning of the 1800s meyhane in Istanbul numbered around 500.
During the reign of Selim the Grim alcohol consumption in the Ottoman Empire increased particularly and meyhane started to appear more regularly as separate buildings built from masonry, with arched windows and doors and earth floors.
Historical descriptions Ottoman journalist Basiretçi Ali Efendi (1838–1912) has described the Golden Horn coast and especially the meyhane around Balat in the beginning of the 1800s.
Author Sadri Sema (1880–1964) describes the pub culture in Istanbul in the beginning of the 1900's as follows:
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