Martinovanje - Slovenian Feast of St. Martin

SLOVENIA 🇸🇮

The Slovenian Church of St. Cyril takes up exactly the same space as any of the walk-up buildings on St. Marks Place in the East Village, almost hiding in plain sight. This home of Slovenia's small New York City area congregation hosts an annual gathering for the feast of St. Martin, a holiday without much of a following in the states. For many countries in Europe, and Slovenia in particular, this celebration of the harvest, food, and wine is a very important day and celebrated with as much vigor as we celebrate Thanksgiving.

While Cleveland and Chicago have larger populations of Slovenians, this area probably only retains a few hundred, and we are unfortunately not graced with restaurants and culture. Many thanks to Charles Bibilos for the connection to the event, where I met the organizers Father Krizolog and Aleks Jakulin, as well as the head chef Mia Branc and Slovenian wine guru Emil Gaspari, who was sharing some great bottles with everyone.

After morning mass in the church, the congregation moved downstairs and others started arriving hungry for the feast. Dancing and singing to commemorate Slovenia and the holiday were performed, and I learned that the national anthem of the country is actually a drinking song.

On this note, the wines started getting passed to each table and the spirits of everyone were very high.

Afterwards, the hungry parishioners grabbed plates and loaded them up with a little bit of everything. For reference, Slovenian food can be most closely related to that of Istrian, which more commonly is associated with Croatia although the peninsula is shared by Italy and Slovenia as well. A couple Istrian clubs in Astoria, Queens (United Miners S.C. Rudar and Istria Sport Club) are open year round if you would like to sample this cuisine.

The most important parts of the feast of St. Martin are the goose and mlinci, a thinly sliced flatbread that is boiled and served in gravy. These two dishes are blending together centrally in the plate below.

Some vegetables and breads rounded out the selection that also included fried chicken cutlets and pork loin.

A group of people that started as strangers when I took my seat at their table had become much more after 30 minutes or so, and were happy to tell me about their traditions and foods. Mlinci (below) was new to me, but was my answer when someone asked what my favorite part of the meal had been. To my surprise, the maker was sitting with us and this made her day.

A wide assortment of sweets were also on offer, including delicious potica seen below. This nut roll would have been worth the price of admission alone, and came in three varieties including walnut, chocolate, and another that was unidentified.

On the top half of the plate, kifeljcki.

At the very end, with sweet teeth already satisfied, a treasure chest full of horseshoe-shaped cookies made of crushed hazelnut arrived. These too were crowd favorites and went fast.

My sincere thanks to everyone involved in setting this event up and preparing the foods. The hospitality of everyone and all the new friends I met was very memorable and I look forward to seeing everyone next year!

[Correction: This article was updated to show that Father Krizolog was the main organizer of this yearly event]

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EAST VILLAGE Manhattan

Slovenska Cerkev sv. Cirila

Gottscheer Hall Tap Room

GERMANY 🇩🇪

The tap room at Gottscheer Hall is the type of place that probably has looked the same for at least a decade. The same five to ten men are there every night, ordering the same beers, telling the same jokes, and popping quarters in the jukebox to play the same 80's rock favorites.

The night me and a friend decided to go was just before Halloween, and the main ballroom (if you can call it that) was filled with a party for children all dressed up in their cute costumes. Although not much dancing was taking place, I could hear the chicken dance and electric slide coming from the hall.

That finally cleared out on this Friday night around 9:30pm, but the tap room stays open until at least midnight on weekends, depending on the crowd. They serve dinner from Wednesday through Sunday, and it is worth coming here for the experience of the whole place, even if the German food will not completely knock your socks off.

Although he became annoying to the point of anger, our neighbor at the bar began a conversation with us before we had even sat down. It is just that type of place, where even two young kids living far away from Ridgewood can come in and feel very welcome immediately.

They carry a couple bad US beers and a few good German beers, usually poured in the correct glassware in metric sizes. You will notice small signs on the tables advertising a $1 beer in the 0.3L size with any food purchase. Make sure to take advantage of this at some point during the evening.

On the specials the night we went was the sauerbraten dinner ($12.50, below), a big plate that comes with potatoes and red cabbage. The potatoes will be enjoyed, especially with the tangy gravy poured over the meat. The red cabbage is so-so, while the meat itself is on the dry side. It's fine with that sauce, but I found that a bite should probably include the potato as well.

Did someone say three-cheese spaetzle ($8, below)? When the bartender did in fact say these words, we jumped at the chance to eat it. Unfortunately it did not live up to expectations, as the noodles were soft and dead and the whole thing just tasted too similar to macaroni and cheese. That being said, it was not terrible, it just was not like spaetzle.

Between courses we enjoyed another round or two of $5 beers in half-liter mugs, an absolute steal even for Ridgewood. Eventually the promise of apple strudle ($3, below) came, but even this disappointed. Besides coming about 30 minutes later, it was just a microwaved dish. Unfortunately the black forest cake ($3) that was on the menu was not available.

Despite the fact that I have not said so many nice things about the food, I would come back here in a heartbeat. The place has charm, and the experience of it is definitely worth any distance and time you have to take to get here. The service is friendly and you are treated like family on your first visit. They have a bunch of memorabilia on the walls that is worth a look, and a big map of the Gottschee region, where the first immigrants who started this place were from. That region is now in current day Slovenia, and this place has no German accents, but it is all still very pure somehow.

The street outside was even named for them!

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RIDGEWOOD Queens
657 Fairview Avenue

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