The Korsan Story
Korsan translated to English means pirate, a pun on the fact that the owners of Korsan Ltd and the Korsan Restaurants, the Bilgutay family have always had very strong associations to the sea with three generations of the family serving in the Turkish Navy.

In the mid 1970’s my father Gurkan Bilgutay (who knew the Turkish coastline like the back of his hand) retired from the Navy and looking for a change of life-style and pace he opened a restaurant and a small pansiyon in his favourite sleepy fishing village.  The village was Kalkan and that restaurant was Korsan. This brought the total number of restaurants in Kalkan at that time to two.

This was the beginning.  In his youth my father had also been a musician and with three other musicians formed Turkey’s first Rock ’n’ Roll band.  The band’s notoriety and connections with Istanbul meant friends started to visit this little place on the Mediterranean and tourism was born.  Before long, my father was accommodating the first foreign visitors and Kalkan was officially on the map.

I took over from my father in 1990 and in 1992 my wife, Claire, joined the family and the business.

Korsan Ltd has expanded greatly since those early days in the 1970’s. The Korsan brand now includes property development, property management and maintenance, villa rentals, restaurants, in villa catering, hotel management and our latest venture, agriculture and olive oil production.

We are a family business with a team that have worked with us for many years.  During University holidays our sons, Patrick Omer and Oliver Eren, work in the restaurants, and elsewhere, learning the ropes… the tradition continues.

Relax, unwind, and enjoy your stay in Kalkan.
Uluç Bilgütay