201 studio
Veggie corner in flowers
To the delight of all foodies, in the eastern part of the city but not far from the city centre, a new place with vegetarian and vegan delicacies has sprung up – but it’s more than just that. This cute place with a mission of good food, but also – flowers (!), is the new project of the well-known everyone’s favourite, Ivana Bekavac, the popular chef of the television culinary show Hell’s Kitchen Croatia,who used to run the former favoured bistro Kut. 201 Studio is an unusual combination of a bistro and a flower studio, where, this time, Ivana coupled visions with her sister Mara and Mara’s passion for flowers. It is located above Kvaternik Square, near the roundabout at the foot of beautiful Srebrnjak, with a deceptively basic interior decor, yet full of rustic charm. It reminds of an old Burgundy bistro in which you can you can find yourself in the company of a farmer, a priest or even a mayor :) We have the impression that the main protagonists of this beautiful story had exactly that on their minds when designing this place where you can come for a hearty meal, a fine dinner, but also a quick breakfast, or just a coffee with friends, a glass of wine...
The walls are covered in small white tiles just like our grandmothers used to have and beautiful arched mirrors, and the space is dominated by an impressive central bar covered in small red ceramic tiles. It is surrounded by 15 high chairs, and the rest of the bistro can accommodate about twenty more people. In front, along the bustling Petrova, there is a small, vivacious terrace for 20 guests.
What is served
The menu is concise and it changes according to seasons, thus always remaining fresh and interesting. 201 Studio is proud to be using seasonal and local ingredients and collaborating with small Croatian farms and suppliers.
The first on the current menu is homemade granola with seasonal fruit and yogurt, which can also be soy if you're vegan. There's also a soup of the day, followed by a sandwich and a hearty veggie bowl, and then, finally, there are three desserts, one better than the other! If you're just here for a glass of wine or a beer, you can enjoy a spicy nut mix that's an excellent accompaniment to nibble on. The drink menu is as simple and high-quality as the food, so you can enjoy good specialty coffee, homemade iced tea or smoothies, freshly squeezed juices, matcha lattes, craft beer from Garden Brewery, and a small selection of three wines that change every two weeks. We heard they have some culinary workshops and wine dinners on their mind, so stay tuned!
What our chefs had
Since the menu is quite short, and we were very hungry, of course we tried everything:)
We started with a rich veggie bowl, dominated by a great hummus with bulgur, pickled carrots and beets, all covered in mayonnaise with arugula, seeds and fresh watercress. Then we had an excellent deep-flavoured and thick roasted pumpkin soup, with pumpkin oil and roasted seeds, followed by a toast with tofu and black garlic. We also had the hot-cold sandwich, rich in seeds, tofu and pickled vegetables, with green arugula mayonnaise and Dijon mustard. To finish, we enjoyed the perfect polenta cake, thick and moist, with wonderful flavours of almonds and lemon. We accompanied our meal with fresh fruit juice made of beets and honey, and finished with a Costa Rican coffee from Lively Roasters.
We should also mention the flowers, arranged in the back room next to the kitchen into beautiful bouquets and wreaths, in vases from Mara’s collection that you can also buy. The flower arrangements we saw had a lovely rustic 'vibe', combining fresh and dried flowers, and leaves like silver dollar plant, dried eucalyptus, and colourful autumn leaves.
