Lucas Foust:
Cool. All right, this is Lucas Foust here. I'm with, is it Zeynep? Is that how you say your first name, Z?
Zeynep Martello:
Zeynep. Yep.
Lucas Foust:
Zeynep Martello of Z's Market here in Bozeman. They have agreed to be our Business of the Month and we're thrilled to have them on board. Z, let's just learn a little bit about you. First of all, I'm going to ask you this question. I ask everybody the same first question. Setting your faith and your family aside, and even your business aside, setting those three things aside, what's the passion in your life, Z? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Zeynep Martello:
The fact that I'm healthy and I have a business that I love going to everyday, and I'm not just hiding from, oh, I don't want to go to this job. You know what I mean? I'm excited.
Lucas Foust:
You love your job?
Zeynep Martello:
Yeah.
Lucas Foust:
What do you love most about running your own business and having your own place?
Zeynep Martello:
It's just ... What do I love most about it? Well, I love inviting customers and talking to customers, and providing a little family style atmosphere. I feel close to people, share my culture with them, feed them simple things that just simply makes them happy. But lately, I can't even invite people over. So I don't know.
Lucas Foust:
Sure.
Zeynep Martello:
It's hard.
Lucas Foust:
Well, tell us a little bit about where did you grow up? Tell us a little bit about that. Was it Turkey? Is that where you grew up?
Zeynep Martello:
I grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. My dad was a lawyer.
Lucas Foust:
Oh, no kidding?
Zeynep Martello:
Yeah. My mom was a housewife and I went to private school and then learned some English. And then my parents decided we're just going to send you to live with your uncle for about a year. My uncle was a professor at MSU and he went, he was educated in US, so he just settled here. So I came and lived with him for a year. And I just ... That's the rest is my parents moved here a year later. And now we're all here. So.
Lucas Foust:
Well, great. So your uncle who taught, what did he teach?
Zeynep Martello:
He taught International Business. He taught Marketing for many years at MSU. Yeah, I just lived with him and learned how to adjust to US. He was like, well, you're in US. So I know in Turkey, couldn't do this, but you can get a job here in a few years. So my first job was Burger King.
Lucas Foust:
Great.
Zeynep Martello:
And then ... Yeah.
Lucas Foust:
What was the biggest change you noticed being in Istanbul? That's a major metropolitan area versus ... It was a cow town when you moved here probably. Huh?
Zeynep Martello:
It was kind of ... I was like, "Is this it?" Well, I wasn't ... We had a summer house there. So I was in the middle of my summer vacation with my friends. And then towards the end of it, I came here and it was snowy. So it was like, "Okay." I don't know. It was kind of scary, but-
Lucas Foust:
A little bit of a shock, I suspect.
Zeynep Martello:
Yeah.
Lucas Foust:
So do you still have family back in Turkey?
Zeynep Martello:
Yeah. I still have all my family there. My cousins are kind of scattered. One of them is in London. The other was in Sweden. I still have cousins in Turkey. But I just have basically my brother, my mom and dad who live in US. My parents live in Bozeman. My brother is an engineer in San Francisco, but he just bought a house here.
Lucas Foust:
Okay.
Zeynep Martello:
I don't know. That's just us. That's it.
Lucas Foust:
How did you decide to start your business? Where did that come from? Just out of the blue or what?
Zeynep Martello:
Pretty much. When I met Mark at a bar-
Lucas Foust:
At a bar. Okay. All great stuff starts at a bar. I'll tell you what boy.
Zeynep Martello:
We met at our bar.
Lucas Foust:
Okay.
Zeynep Martello:
Before it exploded. But anyway, it turned out that he worked, I worked at a law firm. I worked for Angel Coil & Bartlett upstairs as a receptionist.
Lucas Foust:
Great.
Zeynep Martello:
And then he was downstairs. He worked at the radio station, but I didn't know that when I met him. And then he kind of stalked me. So we met, anyways. And then, so yeah we started dating. We got married. And then it all started when we went to Turkey on our honeymoon. By this time I already worked at the law firm for four years. So I was kind of like, ugh.
Lucas Foust:
Done. Yeah, we're done with this. Yeah. So you moved on and so you started, did you start at the same location where you are now? Or where did you start?
Zeynep Martello:
No. Mark encouraged me. He was like, 'Why don't we do a farmers market?"
Lucas Foust:
Oh.
Zeynep Martello:
I wanted to sell textiles. I wanted to sell really pretty curtains, towels and stuff like that. And I brought, I somehow got free samples enough to start selling those at the market. I originally wanted to open a retail type of shop, so I wanted to test it out. Well, he was a little bit, I don't know, they didn't sell so hot. So I was like, "Why don't I just lose customers in with making some baklava" And then that's kind of ... And then I added the hummus. And then from then on that same summer, they loved it so much that I went to Town & Country and asked them if I could get it in there. And then the flavors started happening because Americans love flavor. And after that, that was kind of it. The restaurant thing, I don't know. The restaurant thing happened, then that started the farmers market.
Lucas Foust:
Oh.
Zeynep Martello:
Then I think we went there again. Then Mark got the idea about the cones. So we bought Frank's, what was it? Franks ... What was that place? The restaurant. Anyways, we bought Frank's old hot dog cart for 900 bucks. And then we put the broiler on it. Then for five, six years, we just did Bogart Market and stuff like that. Then we started running out of space. We were like, "We need a cooler." And my parents were kind of like, they were like, "Are you like a gypsy?" Because where I come from-
Lucas Foust:
That's what gypsies do, yeah. They have the same thing in Bulgaria. They have little carts all over the darn-gone place.
Zeynep Martello:
My dad was a lawyer. You don't do, stuff like that where I come from. Usually, like ... Here it's okay though, right? So we started, but my parents were just kind of really like questioning it for a while.
Lucas Foust:
"What are you thinking?" "What are you thinking, Z?" This is yeah, this is not what you should be doing.
Zeynep Martello:
Then I decided it's enough. We're running out of cooler space, so we need a place. So we just found that one spot. We looked everywhere but downtown was too expensive. And I went to this place where I am now, a couple of times back and forth. And I was like, "I feel like this is the place. I feel like this is it."
Lucas Foust:
Good.
Zeynep Martello:
So the rent was reasonable. So, that's how it started.
Lucas Foust:
How many years you've been in the same location?
Zeynep Martello:
I think it's going to be 10 years.
Lucas Foust:
Oh my gosh.
Zeynep Martello:
This November.
Lucas Foust:
Well, that's great. That is. What do you like most about living in Montana? If you could live anywhere in the world, Z, you've been all over a lot. What do you like most about living here?
Zeynep Martello:
Actually, honestly, I haven't been all over a lot. I strictly came from Istanbul, Bozeman. But I traveled a little bit. I think I love that ... It's just really small and people would say "hi" to me when I first came here. Or when you're driving, I was driving with my uncle, everybody would go like this. I'm like, "What is that?" "Why are people doing this? We don't know them." Anyways, but yeah. I don't know. I love camping and I'm a huge fisherman. I love ... And I don't do fly fishing. I just do regular fishing.
Lucas Foust:
Yeah.
Zeynep Martello:
I've been, but I just love camping and fishing and not into skiing. So I don't know.
Lucas Foust:
That's fair. Absolutely.
Zeynep Martello:
My parents went through a tough time here a little bit, so I stuck by them. So I didn't really go anywhere. I went to school. I was here with them, helping them with language and all that stuff. So I didn't really ... My brother took off. But I stayed here with them. So.
Lucas Foust:
Well, your brother has come back. Is he working from home a lot? And as an engineer sending stuff to San Francisco, et cetera? Or is he working in Bozeman?
Zeynep Martello:
He is right now. He's working in Bozeman. Because people ... It's not good there right now. So.
Lucas Foust:
Sure.
Zeynep Martello:
My dad, during this corona time, my dad found out he has cancer.
Lucas Foust:
Oh, no. Sorry. Yeah.
Zeynep Martello:
I think it's nice and he's been wanting to buy a place here forever. He's in his 40s now, so my mom's like, "Okay, you need to grow up." He lives with his girlfriend in San Francisco. But he bought a house here. And so I think it's good that we're all here now, kind of.
Lucas Foust:
Yeah.
Zeynep Martello:
He's going to have to commute and go there a lot, but he's here at least for six months. So.
Lucas Foust:
Good. Well, Z, I want to thank you for being our Business of the Month. We really appreciate it. And what's your favorite thing to make at your restaurant? The number ... And don't say the Olympian with Egg because only one person in the world is coming up to do that. That's me. So what's your favorite thing to make at your market?
Zeynep Martello:
Oh, geez. Everything, not just one.
Lucas Foust:
Your baklava is one thing. What else?
Zeynep Martello:
I would say that's not my favorite thing to make because that's really labor-intensive.
Lucas Foust:
That's time, yeah.
Zeynep Martello:
God, I don't know. Grape leaves. I like everything, really. I like the sauces, the rice, everything, that's simple, I love making. The rice, the sauces. My sauce is I think because I make them from scratch pretty often.
Lucas Foust:
Well, good.
Zeynep Martello:
Yeah.
Lucas Foust:
Well Z, thank you again. I really do appreciate it. I'm going to turn the recording off. But thanks again. I appreciate.
Zeynep Martello:
Yeah. Thank you. Have a good day. Say "hi" to Heather.
Lucas Foust:
I absolutely will. So.
Zeynep Martello:
All right. Bye.