Kafana

D and I go way back.  We met years ago when we were both in junior high and quickly became really good friends.  Years of silly high school antics and movie nights followed, and we did a good job of keeping in touch when we each went off to college too.  However, getting together and catching up became a bit trickier when D joined the Peace Corps after college and headed to Sierra Leone, and we unfortunately kind of lost track of each other.

A few weeks ago, though, he returned from Africa and moved to New York to start a grad program, and we happily realized that we were both living in the same city for the first time in almost 10 years.  We agreed to meet up for dinner at Kafana, a Serbian-Croatian restaurant in the East Village.  We grabbed a table outside, ordered a carafe of the house red wine, and got stuck into some bread with a delicious roasted red pepper spread while we started to fill each other in on our lives.

The Zeljanica, a traditional phyllo pastry pie filled with spinach and feta cheese, caught our eye, so we split one to start.

It was thick and gorgeous, with a wonderfully buttery crust and flavorful, cheesy filling.

We then overcompensated for our vegetarian starter by ordering the Mesano meso--a selection of grilled meats for two.  We were quite impressed with our carnivorous selves when this plate o'meat arrived.

The pile consisted of Cevapi (the smaller sausages made of minced meat that you can see above at the bottom of the plate),  Kobasice (larger sausages)....

 Dimljena vesalica (thinly sliced smoked pork neck)...

Krmenadla (pork chops)

and what ended up being my personal favorite, Rolovane suve sljive i dzigerica (prunes stuffed with walnuts and cheese rolled in bacon with chicken liver rolled in bacon).

Wrap anything in bacon and I'll like it, guaranteed.

After finishing the plate, we felt like we had met our protein quota for the entire week.  So, rather than order dessert (although it was hard to pass up the baklava), we decided to finish the night with coffees.

If you want to go to Kafana, you can make reservations here, but be sure to hit up the ATM on the way, as it's cash only.

Sitting outside and enjoying the warm night air was lovely, but the interior of Kafana looked cozy as well, with lighting that got more romantical as the night went on.  I'd like to go back on some cold and snowy winter night, order some wine, and share stories and more of those bacon-wrapped prunes with friends, all the while pretending that I'm in Dubrovnik, of course.  

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