Grapevine - Colleyville - Southlake | March 2024

Dining

BY KAREN CHANEY

Cevapi ($22) is Balkan beef sausages and fresh lepinja bread served on a hot iron skillet.

Smoked salmon sandwich ($16) is smoked salmon with bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onions, avocado and mayonnaise. Pictured with a side of lobster bisque ($12) .

PHOTOS BY KAREN CHANEYCOMMUNITY IMPACT

Balkan Garden Bistro attracts guests of all kinds Hector Sandoval, general manager of Balkan Gar- den Bistro, said in the time since Elvis and Adelisa Ramovic opened the restaurant in March, they have noticed a shift in clientele.

Chocolate chip bread pudding ($14) is a bread- and chocolate chip-based dessert.

with fresh lepinja bread, and sarma, which is ground beef and rice stued cabbage. Some crowd-pleasing, non-Balkan items are cheese ravioli and rigatoni. What’s special about it? Sandoval said the Ramovics saw a void of sit- down Balkan restaurants in the area. “This is one of the rst in this area where people sit down and have a meal for a couple hours,” Sandoval said. When choosing the business name, Elvis and Adelisa Ramovic chose to celebrate their heritage. “We are very proud to be from the Balkan region and wanted to make sure that it was incorporated in our name,” Elvis Ramovic said.

“At rst we had a big Balkan crowd,” Sandoval said. “As soon as we got a little bit of traction from Grapevine and Colleyville, people from the local area, we started switching up the menu a little bit—catering to more people than just those from the Balkan region.” What’s on the menu? Elvis said the Balkan recipes used in the restau- rant have been passed down from his and Adelisa Ramovic’s grandmothers. Popular Balkan menu items are cevapi, a Balkan beef sausage dish served

121

HALLJOHNSON RD.

Grapevine

2140 Hall-Johnson Road, Ste. 118, Grapevine www.balkangarden.com

Italian Vespas

817�788�5333 WWW.MOXIESCOOTERS.COM

GRAPEVINE COLLEYVILLE SOUTHLAKE EDITION