The day I drove as much as and discovered that the Tutti Frutti Café within the KRATE at The Grove container park had closed, a gentleman sitting in entrance of the close by Café Zorba (5804 Grand Oro Ln. #102) advised me that he and his pal sitting with him had been now the brand new administration group at Café Zorba, which beforehand was solely a Greek/Mediterranean restaurant however now is also serving conventional Bosnian/Balkan meals, along with the same old gyros, Greek salads, stuffed grape leaves (dolmades) and souvlakis (beneath left).
The 2 males — Fotios (he goes by Frank) Geivelis and Sabani Ferhatovic — invited me to attend the Grand Reopening of Café Zorba, which was held on Could 3 and was going to function an almost-40-lb. lamb roasted outdoors on a rotating spit grill.
Effectively, as a real lamb lover who had by no means sampled Bosnian meals earlier than, I introduced alongside photographer Charmaine George to pattern and take photos of a few of Café Zorba’s new conventional Bosnian/Balkan delicacies.
We began with an order of cevapi — small sausages manufactured from lamb and beef served with ajvar (purple pepper sauce) inside a tasty flatbread. Cevapi is a well-liked Balkan avenue meals that tasted a little bit like lamb-infused, well-grilled breakfast sausages.
We additionally noticed Sabani’s spouse Ferzeta Omerovic take the foil wrap off a pot of probably the most beautiful-looking stuffed peppers (known as punjene paprike; far proper photograph), so we requested her for a pattern. Now, I truthfully have by no means even favored stuffed peppers, however the delicate purple bell peppers had been cooked to smooth perfection and filled with floor beef, rice, tomato sauce and quite a lot of spices so tasty that Charmaine and I had been each hooked.
We additionally bought a pattern of Ferzeta’s Bosnian stuffed “bitter” cabbage rolls generally known as sarma, that are fermented (pickled in some sort of vinegar base) cabbage leaves filled with floor meat (I forgot to ask if it was veal, lamb or beef), minced onion, beef inventory and paprika. Bitter is appropriate. Charmaine really most well-liked the sarma to the punjene paprike.
I then returned alone 4 hours later to take a look at the roast lamb, which Sabani was busy getting correctly spiced when Charmaine and I first arrived. He positively liked cooking the lamb, as he was handing out freshly carved samples of probably the most tender, garlicky scrumptious sliced lamb I had ever tasted — higher than the lamb chops at most high-level eating places! And, Ferzeta’s creamy tomato and cucumber salad served with it additionally was excellent!
However, in case you missed out on the Grand Reopening lamb, don’t be unhappy — Frank promise me that they are going to be roasting an entire lamb “a minimum of as soon as or possibly twice a month. Observe us on Instagram to search out out after we’ll have it subsequent!” For more information, name (813) 388-5987 or order on-line from DoorDash or Uber Eats.— GN
