New in John's Creek: Dervish Turkish Restaurant Opening Soon

JOHNS CREEK, GA – Dervish, a full-service Turkish restaurant concept based in New Jersey, plans to open a large new location at 10990 State Bridge Rd Suite A, Johns Creek GA 30022, co-owner Emre Yalaza told Business Debut in a recent phone interview.

Yalaza said the family has operated Dervish in New Jersey for about four years and has searched the Georgia market for roughly a year and a half before finding the location on State Bridge Road.

The concept draws on the family’s roots in Gaziantep, Turkey, where Emre's father and grandfather operated restaurants.

What to Expect

The Johns Creek restaurant will seat about 200 guests and will follow the same full-service dining model as the New Jersey locations. The buildout includes a full bar.

Yalaza described a focus on in-house butchering and daily meat preparation. Each restaurant employs two butchers who break down whole lambs, trim cuts, and marinate meats each day.

“Everything is made fresh. We do not get anything that is ready to be cut,” he said.

Menu and Vision

Dervish will serve a range of Turkish dishes with several specialties from Gaziantep.

Yalaza highlighted the sogan kebabi as a signature dish at the New Jersey restaurants. The dish uses lamb meatballs, small onions, and a pomegranate-based sauce with Turkish herbs and spices, Yalaza said. The mixture bakes in an oven under a thin layer of bread and is opened at the table. He said the dish has drawn more than one million views on Instagram and significant customer attention.

Other staples will include doner kebab, which Yalaza said is marinated and sliced thin for greater flavor, and a lamb dish called kuzu incik, comes from a limited cut on each whole lamb. Guests in New Jersey often call ahead to reserve that item, Yalaza told Business Debut.

Ownership Background

Dervish is a family business led by Yalaza along with his two brothers and his father. “We work as a whole family,” Yalaza said.

He said his father has worked in restaurants since 1970, beginning with a family restaurant in Turkey. “It is kind of like a generational thing for us that we have always been in this business,” Yalaza said.

Yalaza emphasized teamwork as a central operating principle. He described staff culture as collaborative, where kitchen and service teams support each other as needed. He said the family also prioritizes offering unique dishes that guests will not easily find elsewhere.

Opening Timeline

Yalaza said the team is working through construction and permit approvals. He is targeting an opening in about two months from the time of the interview. An exact opening date is to be announced.

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