Spencer Pernikoff
Telva at the Ridge, the forthcoming cafe from the owners of Balkan Treat Box, will feature traditional Bosnian coffee.
One of the hottest restaurants in St. Louis, Balkan Treat Box, has announced its second concept in the area: Telva at The Ridge. The forthcoming restaurant is slated to open in early 2023.
Located at the Rolling Ridge Nursery in Webster Groves, Telva at The Ridge will continue to serve food from the Balkan region — but this time, through a café and coffee shop.
Chef/owner Loryn Nalic says that she and her husband and partner, Edo Nalic, specifically chose coffee because it is “ingrained” in Bosnian culture. The coffee will be wood-fire roasted, brewed in a small copper pot called a džezva, boiled in water and served with sugar cubes.
“You're going to be able to get a drip coffee and a latte or an espresso,” Nalic says. “But if you're looking to have a new experience and something that's a little more ritualistic, having Bosnian coffee is an event in and of itself. When you go for coffee in Bosnia, it's different than grabbing a cup of coffee here.”
Telva at The Ridge is not strictly a coffee shop, though; the cafe will also offer salads, soups, pastries and open-faced sandwiches, including a Sloppy Mustafa, a take on the Sloppy Joe, as well as a Baklava Yogurt Parfait. For Nalic, the café represents a return to her roots in pastries, where she began her career, and she is excited to showcase a full range of sweet treats like Balkan-style crepes and sweet nut rolls.
“You’ll get flavor profiles from the Balkan region but done in like a different way,” Nalic explains. “Not necessarily with traditional techniques and dishes. … you'll see some of that, but we're bringing these kinds of flavors into more of a casual atmosphere.”
According to Nalic, she and Edo jumped on the opportunity to open Telva at the Ridge after learning that Rolling Ridge Nursery was interested in having some sort of restaurant on its property. As such, the cafe will blend into the nursery's existing footprint, operating next to the nursery's greenhouse with the ability to accommodate events for up to 60 people. The arrangement was perfect; not only would it allow the Nalics to expand on what they do at Balkan by bringing Bosnian coffee culture to this stretch of St. Louis, Rolling Ridge's Webster Groves location will allow them to operate both the restaurant and Telva with as much ease as possible since they will be in the same part of town.
Both restaurant industry veterans, the Nalics founded Balkan Treat Box in 2016 as a food truck, garnering critical acclaim and national attention for their delectable Balkan cuisine. The truck became a runaway success, prompting the two to open a brick and mortar restaurant in Webster Groves three years later. Since then, Balkan Treat Box
has racked up national praise from Esquire, Bon Appétit and the Food Network and continues to be one of the St. Louis area's most beloved restaurants.
Though Telva at The Ridge marks the first expansion for the popular brand since opening its brick and mortar, Nalic says it has always been their goal to continue growing and expanding throughout the area.
“From day one of the first day of the food truck, we knew we would do more than just this,” she says. “So it wasn't a question of why — it was when.”
Scroll down for more photos of Telva at the Ridge.
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