Yapi Mediterranean Subs and Sandwiches Brings Bosnian Specialties to South St. Louis

Armin Grozdanic knows what it's like for the refugees who have recently relocated to St. Louis. After all, it wasn't so long ago that he was one of them.

"In 1996, my husband Armin was in a concentration camp in Bosnia for nine and a half months," Lisa Grozdanic explains. "He was able to flee with his family to Germany and then came here to St. Louis. That was seventeen years ago — and we've been together ever since."

The husband and wife team, who met as high school students at Cleveland NJROTC Academy, have made it their life's mission to help St. Louis' immigrants. For Lisa, it's through her full-time job in the social service department of the St. Louis Islamic Center. Armin's assistance comes in a culinary form — and in fact, it's what propelled the pair to open their new restaurant, Yapi Mediterranean Subs and Sandwiches (5005 S. Kingshighway Boulevard, 314-354-8333) in October.


During Ramadan, Lisa explains, Armin cooks the iftar, or nightly post-fast meal, for two mosques. "This past year, he cooked for the Syrian refugees who have no running water or gas to cook for themselves," says Lisa. "Imagine, it's the heat of the summer, you've been fasting all day, and you have no way to eat. Armin brought them food to break the fast."

Though the Grozdanics' outreach was altruistic, it had the benefit of raising their profile as culinarians within the community, giving them the exposure and investments they needed to open a place of their own.

Yapi has quickly garnered a reputation as the place in town to get cevapi, a traditional Bosnian ground beef sausage dish served with sliced raw onions, sour cream and flatbread. "People says ours is the best," Armin says. "They ask why it's so good, not tough, and I tell them it's because I use fresh, organic ingredients and don't take shortcuts."


You'll also find traditional daily specials, like goulash, on the menu, but the Grozidanics insist that Yapi is not strictly a Bosnian restaurant. In this spirit, the menu is peppered with everything from Mediterranean-inspired gyros to American subs, like a buffalo chicken melt. The restaurant's signature sandwich, the "Yapi Burger," features a mammoth patty of organic, grass-fed beef piled onto a fluffy roll with lettuce, tomato and thick-sliced onion.

Yapi is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.

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