GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A new restaurant is coming to the Downtown Market in Grand Rapids.

Café de Miro, a family-owned Kurdish-style Mediterranean restaurant, is expected to open inside the market in mid-July, said Botan Alagoz, whose family owns the restaurant.

“We would like to open it as soon as possible,” he said. “The work we’re putting in puts us in that time frame.”

The restaurant would be the second location for Café de Miro, which opened its first location at the Breton Village shopping center, 1878 Breton Rd. SE, about two years ago, Alagoz said.

The café is owned by Alagoz’s father, Apo, and his mother, Satos.

Café de Miro offers recipes rooted in the Kurdish region of Eastern Turkey. It has a variety of breakfast and lunch options, ranging from Mediterranean-themed breakfast skillets, acai bowls, French toast, coffee, gyros, paninis, salads, desserts and more.

Alagoz, whose family moved to West Michigan from Istanbul, Turkey, nearly four years ago, said the Downtown Market location gives his family’s business an opportunity to expand.

The new location has a larger kitchen, and the family is looking to capitalize on the additional space by expanding its menu. That includes an expanded selection of gyros, rice bowls, Baba ghanoush, falafel, various teas, a selection of cold drinks such as lemonade, and overnight oats.

“It’s a bigger kitchen space where we can concentrate on creating more authentic food that’s not available in the city from the part of the world where we’re from,” Alagoz said.

He added, “This opportunity just came up all of a sudden and we just jumped in. We like going there and we like the life of the Downtown Market.”

Like many of the Downtown Market vendors, Café de Miro will not offer its own in-person seating. Rather, customers who want to eat at the Downtown Markets can find seating in the communal dining area upstairs. He said the new location will focus heavily on lunch and takeout options.

“It’s just take-out,” he said. “All the focus will be on the food and the quality.”

Alagoz, 22, whose family lives in East Grand Rapids, said his family left Istanbul and came to Michigan in search of new opportunities. He said his father is an entrepreneur who has owned restaurants and retail stores, managed shopping malls, and has worked as an electrical engineer.

“We decided to close everything down and then move here and then start a new life here,” he said.

Alagoz said the name of the restaurant comes from his younger brother, Miro, who is 13. The restaurant’s name is also a nod to Spanish painter, Joan Miró.

Cafe de Miro’s Breton Village location is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days a week. Its menu can be found here, and it can be reached by phone by calling (616) 719-1462.