There’s no denying it: Caffeine is a drug. And what better to create positive associations with consuming drugs than to model your coffee shop after Breaking Bad? Walter’s Coffee Roastery in Istanbul (originally Heisenberg’s) has done just that, with employees in yellow lab suits and gas masks, industrial-looking grinding and brewing equipment, and even sheets of translucent blue candy that look like everyone’s favorite flavor of meth.
Owner Deniz Kosan decided he wasn’t in the coffee business, he was in the empire business, when he realized his cousin looked like Walter White. And like Mike Ehrmantraut, he didn’t believe in half-measures, painting a periodic table on the wall, serving coffee in beakers, Gale Boetticher-style, and serving Flynn-approved breakfast foods. And we assume that instead of misspelling your name like Starbucks, the barista writes, “you’re an insane, degenerate piece of filth, and you deserve to die” on your latte.
While Istanbul is a long way to travel for most of our readers to enjoy a cup of joe and a nod of recognition, Kosan hopes to expand to the EU and the U.S. in the future. So you might be able to one day enjoy 99 percent pure uncut Colombian coffee served by a barista who addresses you as “bitch” while counting fat stacks of cash. We advise against using the stevia.