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Rainy autumn evening

The restaurant has opening times typical for restaurants of this kind. In other words, some days it is closed, some other days it is opened for supper and some days it is opened for lunch as well as supper. Since I was on a wine trip, I had to modify my program. But my motivation was hope for a great gourmet experience. I reserved table for supper. It was the beginning of October and nice day changed into windy and rainy evening. I didn’t mind it at all. The restaurant is by a forest and the whole atmosphere was very romantic. Moreover, inside the restaurant dominates a big fireplace, where two massive logs were burning. One could hear cracking of the wood and feel pleasant warmth coming out of the fireplace. Hosts welcomed us and seated us by the fireplace. Recently was hosts' granddaughter born, so festive ambience ruled.

A pasta marathon

Menu was inspired by autumn and autumn ingredients. We let Joško's wife, Loredana, choose concrete dishes for us. She asked us whether we liked pasta and meat. They offered different kinds of homemade pasta and veal as well as game from surrounding forests. The offer was tempting and we agreed on it. We got a little present to start with: homemade paté with toasted bread. During our pre-starter Joško brought trolley with dry pork thigh. He cut a few slices of prosciutto for us to try. It was delicious. “Eccelente” I said in my rusty Italian. I found out that he makes it by himself, of course. I started to go through wine list, but I didn’t get further than the first page. In a few minutes we were served homemade tortellini with fresh tartare of beef tenderloin. It was unusual, but a very good combination. This soft dish, dissolved in mouth. We washed it down with Prosecco, another present from our host.

I continued checking out the wine list, which was set up above my expectations. Thirty pages-long little encyclopedia included wines of all known winemakers as well as yet unknown rising wine-stars of this region. Guests can order not only currently available years of wine but also
mature wines from archive. There are also samples that winemakers don’t even posses any more. Besides mandatory offer of champagne and a few samples of French wines, there is more wine from important areas in Italy. I appreciated that majority of wines was from Collio, Friuli and Carso regions.

Later on we ate seasonal salad and drunk a glass of Vitovska from Vodopivec. It is a grandiose wine. The autumn salad consisted of little gnocchi-like pasta, softly fried zucchini and porcini. High intensity and concentration of tastes was achieved by an artful way of cooking. It was served in a jar, which was visually impressing and it also helped to store concentrated aroma. Beautiful! Afterwards we got spaghetti with caviar. Home-made pasta was cooked al dente, of course. Caviar added salty flavour and in combination with Ribolla from Stanko Radikon that aged on
grape skins it was amazing.

I love pasta. When I am in Italy I always try to order pasta fresca, if they offer it. But the next pasta course – gnocchi was thank God the last one. I was full. Spinach gnocchi were flawless, too. Soft and tasty. Nice waitress served us sorbets afterwards. “Tutto bene?” she asked. "Benissimo!” Sorbet refreshed us and prepared us for further challenges.

Carne

Carne means meat in Italian. When waiter in Italy wants to help you to choose a dish, he usually asks what kind of food you feel like eating: “Pasta? Pesce? Carne?”. Restaurants are often divided into pasta, fish or meat, depending on where it is worth to go for a specific food. The
good restaurants are known by locals for having everything delicious. We were in this kind of restaurant then and we were waiting for our carne. Meanwhile we got Rosso from Joško Gravner. It is a very deep and meditative wine that I didn’t even want to combine with food. With food I rather ordered Terrano from Edi Kante. It seemed like a good choice. As waiter pulled up a trolley with pork knee, we understood that we shouldn’t have ordered more. But that was too late. Later we got deer. Both of these dishes had a few features in common. One could feel home in them. They were served tastefully. They were baked very well, but still juicy. Cook added spices wisely and let taste of meat step up. Excellent home cuisine! They earned the star from Michelin. And we earned a mini yoghurt after we finished carne. I appreciated that we got only a small dessert after we stuffed ourselves with food.

Dolci

Mistake! We got our desserts (dolci in Italian) after the yoghurt. The yoghurt was just a small foreplay. One of the desserts was a vanilla crème with raspberries. It was tasty and sweet, but didn’t seem special. It was a standard, good dessert. But a cold soup of grapes “knocked me out”.
It was absolutely perfect. The grape juice must have been pressed a while ago. There was a herb ice-cream on the side, too. It was refreshing and original. We also got a selection of home-baked little cakes with coffee. When I talked about pasta marathon, I had no clue there was going to be one more sweet marathon. The menu expressed autumn ambience perfectly. And the offer of local wines was fantastic.

My rating:

The author does not visit rated restaurants at the invitation, but chooses them himself. Impressions and evaluation are based on single one visit. All expenses are covered by the author.

Text and photos: Dodi Fodor