How a Coffee Fortune Teller Spends His Sundays
The New York Times
Dr. Honeybrew, as he is known, starts his days with music before brewing Turkish coffee in hot sand and opening his home to guests for a little bit of magic.
Uluç Ülgen was born in Istanbul and raised in Minnesota, then he moved to New York in 2012, hoping for a bigger life. A few years later, as “Dr. Honeybrew,” he created the Turkish Coffee Room, a coffee-grounds reading ceremony that is performed out of his living room in the East Village of Manhattan.
The readings, he said, are “theatrical fortunetelling experiences that blend magic, music and soothsaying.”
“It’s a sense of intuition and interpretation,” Dr. Honeybrew, 35, said. “I’m not unique, but I have a colorful style of fortune reading, and a darn good track record.”
The readings started in earnest in 2019 as a nod to the roots of his late father, who was from Turkey and taught him the trade. Today, the reading room has become a weekly experience, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and he says he has read over 9,000 coffee cups. Guests come to his home, which he shares with his fiancée, Amy Shamblen, 31, a graphic designer, and their two Shih Tzus, Tokaji and Szuka.
He said he loves that strangers come together, then “leave invested in each other’s lives.”
“There are tears and laughter,” he said. “It’s very special.”
