Entrepreneurs open Central Perk café in Kurdistan modeled after TV show Friends

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdish entrepreneurs have opened a Central Perk café last month inspired by the coffeehouse from the popular US sitcom Friends in the Kurdistan Region capital Erbil.

In that show, the Central Perk café is located in New York City's Greenwich Village, where the characters spent most of their time.

Danny Najm, his brother Hany Najm, and France Bahram opened the cafe in October 2021 because they wanted to start their own business.

Najm said that fans of the show from Baghdad, Sulaimani, and Erbil have already visited his new café.

"We had so many foreigners, like people from Germany, who are fans of the series Friends," he said.

However, he said it was challenging to replicate the items of the Central Perk café, like the sofas and tables. "We couldn't apply the idea 100 percent, since Central Perk is a studio and this is a real café."

"The construction and design companies faced difficulties translating my ideas into reality, so I canceled the contract," he added. "We did this job (designing the coffeehouse) by ourselves. We were our own interior designers. We were lucky that the people that worked with us were fans of Friends as well, and also helped with the design."

Najm’s café isn’t the first Central Perk café in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

"There is one branch in Sulaimani, one in Baghdad," Najm said. There are also similar cafés in Dubai, Singapore, Tehran, Egypt, and now the third one in Iraq.

“We did it (our version) professionally, with the best location and quality to implement our idea," he added.

Customers visiting Najm’s café come wearing shirts from the show (which aired from 1994 to 2004). Episodes from the hit show are also shown in the café’s many televisions for 2-3 hours from 6:30 pm in the evening. 

"Some customers tell us they want to sit on the couch like the actors in the series and say famous lines from it," Najm said.

The food on the menu is named after famous actors from the series, like Chandler and Rachel's Cheese, Joey's Meatball Subs, Joey's Pizza. Even the hookah pipe is named after the Chandler character.

Najm said it was difficult to get foreign staff, especially chefs and staff, from abroad.

Some of them thought Kurdistan Region was still a war zone.

"So, I showed them videos from foreign influencers and world travelers that visited Erbil and let them talk to expats that were already living in Kurdistan," Najm said.

"We are still hopeful we can reach them and convince them it's safe here, but it's still hard."