PHOTOS: New Fino&Vino restaurant on Kaptol in Zagreb opens

by croatiaweek
January 22, 2019
in Food & Wine

Restaurant Fino&Vino opening party in Zagreb

By Jasminka Sikic

ZAGREB, 22 January 2019 – Restaurant ‘Fino&Vino’ on Kaptol in the Croatian capital Zagreb now has new owners and has celebrated with an opening party.

The large number of guests at the opening party was not surprising, considering the place has quite a history. In the mid-nineties, this was a favorite place of many Croatian politicians, journalists, and artists. Famous Croatian artist Edo Murtic was a frequent visitor to the restaurant and his graphics covered the interior walls. It’s very likely to see a celebrity here, and the most popular of this occasion was ex Dinamo and Croatia goalkeeper Tomislav Butina.

Tomislav Butina (in grey) at the ‘Fino&Vino’ opening party

The two partners in the newest takeover of this historical place are Danijel Vlasicek and Kresimir Sesnic. After a long career as a chef at ‘Dubravkin put’, ‘Maximilian’ and ‘Kamanjo’ in Zagreb, and ‘Zeleni papar‘ in Samobor, followed by the experiences in ‘Paulaner an Nockherberg’ and ‘Heimgarten’ in Munich, and ‘Rustika’ in Cologne, this is Danijel’s first self-owned restaurant and he’s excited about the fact. Living abroad can be beneficial but it’s nicer to have him at home, his family agrees.

The food is more or less as traditional as you can get, with the necessary touch of modern chic one might expect in a freshly started business. The dishes you can order here are based on meat and fish, with a price range between 40 and 150 kuna for a meat dish, or 350 to 700 kuna for high-quality fish. Their trademark is rested grilled stakes, with lamb minced steak the chef’s favourite. All the ingredients are bought daily from the nearby Dolac market and they also bake their own bread.

Danijel’s partner Kresimir previously worked as a sommelier at Asia Gold, Baltazar and Trilogija in Zagreb. There are more than 90 wines in the offer of ‘Fino&Vino’, and Kresimir recommends those from Pljesevica area. Of all the sorts of Croatian autochtonous wine, he would pick ‘Grk’, ‘Posip’, ‘Dubrovacka malvasia’, ‘Crljenak’, ‘Babic’ and ‘Plavac’ to be the best ones.

‘Fino&Vino’ won’t make sudden changes to the menu because they would like to keep faithful customers, but the course of the future will present itself with the opportunities to develop further. ‘The sky is our limit’, says Danijel.