As confirmation, look no further than the seventh edition of November Gourmet Ljubljana, a festival held in the city to showcase the rich local culinary food scene. The festival programme lists a lot of different events, including tastings, meetings, workshops, courses, debates and other fascinating culinary experiences that are sure to leave indelible memories. Created in collaboration with Ljubljana Tourism, the festival brings togethers restaurateurs, wine bars, brewers, cafes, distilleries and shops, as well as educational and culinary venues in the Slovenian capital, all of whom work together to develop a programme of events which aims to promote and raise the profile of Ljubljana’s gastronomic identity – and by extension, that of Slovenia.
The purpose of the initiative is to create a network of contributors capable of working together to safeguard the superb food and wine produced in this country, which is increasingly moving into the international spotlight. This interest from outside the country is thanks to the work of far-sighted chefs and entrepreneurs, the attention of critics, and the superb variety of top-quality produce that is sourced from Slovenia’s coastal waters, rivers and inland areas. Slovenia boasts myriad unspoilt natural landscapes that ensure an extraordinary heritage to which the country’s gastronomic traditions are closely tied.
Sample local cuisine on the Yummy Market Walk, visit the Broken Bones distillery for tastings of cocktails and spirits, or a brewery to enjoy a typical Slovenian beer. Then move on to brunch at AFTR, dinner at Bistro Mala Terasa, or attend a Thursday get-together with chefs and guests at Rashuska culinary studio. Alternatively, join a wine and fermented produce tasting at the Drinx store organised by the Grič restaurant’s MICHELIN chef Luka Košir, or sample raw meat dishes accompanied by natural wines at the Meat Business butchers.
The autumn Brina Festival also takes place at this time of year, with workshops held by mixology experts from the best Slovenian restaurants.
Finally, three new restaurants make an appearance in the 2023 MICHELIN Guide, adding an extra touch of excitement to Ljubljana’s vibrant food scene. Let’s meet them!
AFTR
Jorg Zupan is one of life’s dynamic personalities, an energetic chef who is always involved in something, and one of those people who is so charismatic that they are capable of moving mountains – and often seem to! He started his career working with Bine Volčič, moved to Peter Gilmore’s Quay restaurant in Sydney Harbour and then to London, where he learned the basics of traditional cuisine at Pied à Terre. He then returned to Ljubljana where he opened Atelje and was awarded the city’s first MICHELIN star during the pandemic, before going on to open a second restaurant (Breg).
Following this, he decided that he would like to work on a project that was more affordable than a typical MICHELIN-starred restaurant, and one which would be more closely entwined with the city and not just tourism. And so, in June of this year, he opened AFTR (on the same premises as Atelje), which has been an immediate success.
Open from 10am to 2pm and 5pm to midnight, AFTR has also recently added brunch options to its menu. The restaurant is a constantly evolving project that has been influenced by the many concepts and styles experienced by Jorg Zupan during his travels around the world. “We work with traditional recipes from Slovenia and abroad, often with our own reinterpretations”, explains the chef, “and our menu features numerous dishes influenced by the Middle East”.
The restaurant, which Zupan describes as a “new inn”, is divided into different rooms with a modern, welcoming and cheerful decor thanks to the warm colours on the walls. The dining room can seat around 100 guests, while a further 70 can be accommodated outside. “AFTR is a contemporary restaurant with the soul of an inn, and it’s doing very well. The restaurant is based around the concept of sharing, where you can choose from the à la carte or brunch menus, but in truth there are no particular rules when it comes to ordering. In other words, we don’t have the traditional format of starter, main course, dessert etc. Instead, you can choose between hot and cold courses and create a menu in whatever order you please”. Dishes include mackerel served with smoked mussels, anchovies, olives, onions and sumac; game tartare with bulghur wheat, baharat, feta cheese and focaccia; and Turkish eggs on labneh with chilli peppers and a fermented chilli sauce made from chillis grown in the restaurant’s own garden.
During the pandemic, Jorg Zupan thought a lot about growing his own vegetables and decided to look for somewhere within walking distance of After where he could create his own kitchen garden. He found a 1,000m2 plot between Ljubljana Castle hill and Golovec hill where he has a spring and tanks in which to store the spring water, as well as solar panels that provide power to irrigate the garden. “We grow a bit of everything here”, explains the chef, “except potatoes and onions. Although Ljubljana market is excellent, all the stalls offer pretty much the same kinds of vegetables, and we needed something a bit different for our restaurant. So we grow okra, tomatillo, sweetcorn, seven varieties of tomatoes, the same number of cucumbers, and baby Japanese corn. It’s true that we use seeds from around the world, but we grow them on our own land and that’s why we can say that they’re local”.
However, at this restaurant, where bread rolls and focaccia are made every morning, sustainability extends beyond the kitchen garden. “When you own a restaurant”, adds Zupan, “you understand that a zero-waste approach is essential in order to survive in the marketplace. And this approach, which needs to become the norm, is reflected in every choice that we make, such as reducing our use of plastic to the minimum and using organic waste to make compost for our kitchen garden. However, there’s another important factor in sustainability and that is the human one.
At AFTR, we work like a family – there are different shifts, we’re closed on Sundays, and we organise end-of-season trips and parties to celebrate important occasions such as Christmas. Relationships are hugely important for us and nobody who works here (a total of 40 staff in AFTR and Breg) is simply a number”.
Breg
This restaurant overlooking the banks of the Ljubljanica river also has chef Jorg Zupan at the helm. The windows at the entrance to this restaurant are covered with images that are reminiscent of the chef’s tattoos (the first of which was the result of a dare), while the dining room here is spacious and enhanced by a large outdoor space facing the entrance. This new restaurant describes itself as neither a bistro, a pub nor an inn but rather a mix of all three. It has an uncluttered feel and is a fun place to have a drink and enjoy Zupan’s cuisine which cleverly combines tradition with the latest culinary trends.
Here, where 12 chefs work seven days a week (six per shift, as the restaurant’s sustainable approach also extends to working practices), the menu features creative dishes which often have an international flavour, as demonstrated by the lamb ragu with hummus. Other options include truffle risotto, pappardelle with blue cheese and walnuts, aged beef steak with potatoes, garlic butter and salad, and pork chops (from Slovenian Krškopolje pigs) accompanied by caramelised potatoes, lemon vinegar and tarragon.
Although this restaurant is less sophisticated in style than Aftr, it is no less important and the premise is the same, namely a constant focus on top-quality, local ingredients. The ambience is more informal, and the more generous portions will satisfy the hungriest customers!
Georgie Bistro
Less than a year old, this modern, welcoming restaurant in the heart of Ljubljana is the brainchild of owner-chef Gregor Jelnikar, who was already renowned in the city for his previous experience working at his mentor Bine Volčič’s Monstera Bistro. Having decided to open his own restaurant, Jelnikar then set about finding premises big enough to accommodate a kitchen and dining room where he could happily work and provide guests with the best possible hospitality.
Although still in the city centre, Georgie Bistro is situated in a business district with lots of offices not far from the headquarters of RTV Slovenija. “Although we serve plenty of business lunches (three courses for 28€), our guests also enjoy coming here in the evening to try our 5- and 7-course menus or choose from our à la carte”, the chef explains. Here, the cuisine is highly affordable, with reasonable prices that appeal to tourists and locals alike. Georgie bistro is a restaurant that guests return to time and time again, thanks to its informal, welcoming atmosphere and carefully chosen top-quality ingredients. The dishes change with the seasons and are prepared wherever possible using local ingredients; if produce from elsewhere is used, the restaurant is always transparent about its provenance. The menu features modern cuisine that is influenced by French techniques and Scandinavian and Japanese fermentation methods.
For his fermented ingredients, Jelnikar works close to home with Kis in Kvas, a company based in Slovenia. “We have worked with them for a while. They ferment anything and everything, and together we experiment and develop different recipes to use in our restaurant”, adds the chef. A trained sommelier, Jelnikar also oversees the restaurant’s wine list which currently showcases 45 different Slovenian wines (soon to be 60), all of which are natural and biodynamic. And when it comes to the cuisine, sustainability is key. “We throw nothing away from the ingredients that we use”, he continues “because of our commitment to a zero-waste approach. For example, at the moment we have vitello tonnato on the menu. We recently bought a 60kg Adriatic tuna and because we had some left over after making our tuna tartare, we decided to make this dish. Also, the skin from our aubergines is used to make powder that we sprinkle on to dishes featuring the same vegetable. When we create dishes, we like to offer something that is new yet still easily understood by our guests.”
Some of the restaurant’s dishes are already established favourites, such as the roast veal served with confit potatoes in beef tallow, corn and kimchi, and the cacio e pepe turnip which resembles the famous Italian cacio e pepe dish only in its name and some of its ingredients. “This is now one of our signature dishes. We dehydrate the turnips and rehydrate them in water. We then cook them twice to stop them becoming bitter, and we serve them with a topping of cave-aged Jamar cheese, egg yolk, different types of pepper, toasted sunflower seeds and fresh lemon”, explains Gregor Jelnikar. In summer, this dish is transformed by using dehydrated tomato served with stracciatella, red salsa and the only balsamic vinegar made in Slovenia, namely Istenič. Another house speciality is a buckwheat cream dessert served with home-made honey ice cream, a Kvass (fermented Russian drink) reduction and buckwheat popcorn. When asked about future projects, Jelnikar concludes “I intend to focus my cuisine more on vegetable – yet not necessarily vegetarian – dishes, as I would really like meat-eaters to get to know and enjoy my vegetable-based dishes”.
