At the Ciril-Metodov Trg square, in the facilities of the former watchmaker’s, you will find the Klobasarna (sausage shop) – an interesting shop, which unites the two great trends: resorting to the local, domestic, traditional food and the every more popular concept of street food. We have spoken Stanislav Logar, the owner of the Klobasarna, about uniting the tradition and modern concepts.
How does it happen that a person trades clocks for sausages? Why did you choose the Carniolan sausage (Kranjska klobasa) and not some other dish after closing down the watchmaker’s shop?
Watchmaking was a family tradition for 74 years, for those many years repairing and selling the clock was a very sought-after activity. With the introduction of smartphones and on-line sales of clock and watches the situation changed; sadly, the watchmaking activity lost its battle with the digitalisation and contemporary trends. We had the facilities, location in the centre of Ljubljana, but we needed the change of business, if we wanted to live of this income.
About then, the Carniolan sausage was recognised as the protected autochthonous Slovenian products on the European level – I t received the protected geographical designation, and at the same time the monography by Dr Janez Bogataj Masterpieces with Carniolan Sausage (Mojstrovine s kranjsko klobaso) was published.
Everything seemed to connect and enticed some thought.
This is how we decided to present this autochthonous Slovenian dish to our and foreign guests in the best possible way. We were posed by a great task and we wanted to put in action with decency. After about a year of talking sausage about the idea, it was very simple to find the name – this was the birth of the Klobasarna.
In some way the Klobasarna unites tradition and contemporary ideas. What was your inspiration behind transforming the traditional dish and offering it as a street food speciality?
It is very simple. The eating culture is getting the image of a faster, different and interesting meal. The visits of marketplaces and smaller boutique shops is a growing worldwide trend, as people keep searching for fresh, autochthonous, fast and accessible food.
My family and I noticed in our travel to the nearby and far capitals the sausage is a key element of the street food offer around the world and asked ourselves: “Isn’t our Carniolan sausage one of the best?” The answer was affirmative in one voice, we contacted Dr Bogataj with the following words: “Do it now and immediately, let the Carniolan sausage place itself on the map of Slovenia,” which gave us the green light in some way. The family decided FOR the Carniolan sausage.
We notice more and more tourists in Ljubljana each year. Are those your usual guests or do locals crave good old Slovenian classic as well?
Our offer is based exclusively on traditional food, making it interesting to the tourist without any doubt, since they most often search for that authentic local food. And at the same time we believe a shop, restaurant without local, domestic guests is not authentic, not interesting. We are happy to tell you we have local clients.
Your menu also features štruklji with Carniolan sausage. Is this your idea or is it a traditional dish?
TThis is exclusively my son’s idea; you cannot find any form of this štruklji in any of the cookbooks. And I can tell you this štruklji dish is very delicious and sought-after meal. I recommend you to visit us and be convinced yourself.
The Klobasarna also offer a lovely selection of beer. Do you believe beer is the one beverage, which suits the Carniolan sausage best?
Beer and sausage are a lovely couple. In the beginning the Carniolan sausage was paired with cviček, the another autochthonous Slovenian product, as well as teran, refošk and white wine, and now we expanded the offer to beer. It seems important to present the Slovenian breweries, which follow the worldwide trends of brewing quality beer. We believe the Slovenian craft beer and supplements the boutique Klobasarna offer.
In all the years of opening you definitely became a real expert for the Carniolan sausage. How to prepare the authentic Carniolan sausage and what is more important in preparation?
The Klobasarna celebrates the sixth anniversary and we have been monitoring the quality of the Carniolan sausage among the certified Slovenian manufacturers, all fourteen of them up to this day. They are all very good, yet we remain loyal to the Arvaj butcher’s which has been our supplier from the opening in 2013. We maintain to keep the quality, remain loyal to our primary goals and at the same time follow the culinary trends.
The correct preparation of the Carniolan sausages is simple: A fresh, quality Carniolan sausage is cooked in in water to keep the firmness and maintains the flavour.
