Travel Bulgaria, Holidays Bulgaria, Travel Guide

You occasionally glance through the small timber window that seems as old as time itself. You are sitting at a wooden table enjoying delicious traditional Bulgarian dishes like marudnik (a kind of thick pancake) or luchnik v podnitsa (a wedge of bread filled with lightly-seasoned caramelised onions baked in a flat earthenware dish with a metal lid buried in embers), pryasno sirene (fresh white brined cheese) or katak (a creamy cheese and yoghurt mix with pieces of roasted peppers).

You are drinking sparkling wine and listening to folk songs accompanied by gaida (traditional Bulgarian bagpipes), gadulka (a rebec-Iike instrument) and kaval (a kind of shepherd’s pipe). The melody alternates between the poignantly sad and catchily uplifting. You are in the garden of Pod Lipite (Under the Linden Trees), one of the iconic restaurants of Sofia.

The beautiful yellow corner house, now designated a cultural landmark, is in one of Sofia’s most artistic neighborhoods, located close to Journalist Square. Back in the 1920s, the city’s then mayor allotted a number of writers, actors, journalists and other intellectuals land for building houses here.

Among them were the famous actor Krastyo Sarafov, the celebrated writers Elin Pelin and Angel Karaliychev, and the eminent painter, poet and theatre and art critic Sirak Skitnik. Retired general Stefan Tasev built the elegant house that is now Pod Lipite with a state loan. The first floor was for his family, and the second floor was let to tenants (the prominent Bulgarian poetess Dora Gabe, whose many famous guests included the legendary poetess Elisaveta Bagryana, lived here from 1930).

The restaurant on the ground floor opened in 1926. For years it was the favorite hangout of a group of like-minded friends and fellow writers. The place was rarely visited by strangers maybe because there was hardly any transport at the time, a river ran along one of the streets, or Sofia’s bohemian intellectual community was entirely self-sufficient. Elin Pelin soon named the restaurant Pod Lipite (it was originally called Select).

Today, you can experience the atmosphere of 1930s Sofia chic in the three rooms on the second floor, with their curtains and chandeliers, solid wooden floors, an original glazed-tile stove and fireplace, paintings, portraits, and black-and-white photographs depicting the general’s life. The interior decoration and design of the rest of the house, the cool garden in summer and the covered wooden balcony are the work of a group of friends who have created a truly Bulgarian place.

Complete with original traditional objects, vessels and instruments, with a genuine stone fireplace (odjak), timber windows and crossbeams that are more than a century old, and a gaida that belonged to one of the owner’s great-grandfather. Actually, everything here is from a real mid 19th Century house, and even its key now hangs on the wall.

The recipes on the menu have been painstakingly collected for years from all parts of Bulgaria. These days, you will be hard-pressed to find another place where with calf-tail soup, genuine Banska Kapama (assorted meats in an earthenware pot), old-time marudnik (it might look like a pancake but it’s much more delicious) or the specialty from the village of Arbanasi – zhili v gurne (tendons in an earthenware pot).

The veal and milk are from the restaurant’s own farm, therefore the pastarma (dry cured veal), sushenitsa (dry flat sausage), sirene and katak are truly homemade. Don’t look for electric ovens and stainless steel either – everything here is cooked in earthenware vessels and baked in a stone furnace, however long it might take (some dishes take as many as 12 hours to prepare). The food is seasoned with wild herbs hand-picked high up in the mountains. The fresh game is cooked in sealed earthenware pots. The bread is baked at the restaurant every day.

If you don’t have a grandmother who lives in the mountains, you simply can’t imagine how delectable blackberry syrup can be. For dessert, you can also enjoy homemade ice-cream with walnuts, yoghurt with genuine wild strawberry and blueberry jam, or banitsa slokum (pastry with Turkish delight). But if you haven’t tried sladak salam (sweet salami), then you certainly don’t know anything about the sweet things in life.

Last but not least, the linden trees in the name of this unique place are real. Their leafy shade envelops the whole street, and when they are in bloom their rich fragrance evokes the poems and colours they once inspired.

Pod Lipite

Address: 1 Elin Pelin St, Sofia

Phone: 021 866 5053

http://www.podlipitebg.com/