From Food Truck to James Beard Award Winning Chef: Loryn Nalic's Journey
Loryn Nalic was awarded the Best Chef Midwest by the James Beard Foundation, and we’re going back to a conversation we had with her in 2019 revealing all the juicy details of her culinary journey! Just a month after opening her restaurant, Balkan Treatbox, we sat down with Loryn about the highs, lows, and all the deliciousness in between. So grab your fork and get ready to hear about mouthwatering Balkan street foods, the artistry behind her dishes, and why you should definitely stop by Balkan Treatbox for a tasty adventure!
One month after Loryn and Edo Nalic opened Balkan Treatbox in 2019, I had the privilege of sitting down with Loryn and getting her take on the success of the restaurant. Now Loryn is a culinary superstar being recently crowned the James Beard Best Chef Midwest. She takes us on a delightful journey through her culinary roots and the evolution of her restaurant, Balkan Treatbox. From her childhood memories of cooking with family to the whirlwind of opening a food truck and now a full-fledged restaurant, Loryn shares the ups and downs of her culinary career. She recounts the transformative moments that shaped her passion for food, like her early days busing tables and her leap into pastry chef roles. We get into the intricacies of running a food truck, the challenges of sourcing ingredients, and the creativity that fuels her menu, which is inspired by the rich flavors of the Balkan region.
As we celebrate her recent accolades, we also reflect on how community support and a team effort has been vital to her success, emphasizing the collaborative spirit among local chefs in St. Louis. Loryn and Arnold explore the vibrant food scene in St. Louis, highlighting how the city is gaining recognition on a national scale. They discuss the camaraderie among local chefs and how this interconnectedness strengthens the culinary landscape.
Loryn's anecdotes about her experiences, from baking bread in a food truck to managing the demands of a bustling restaurant are engaging and give us a behind the scenes view. Listeners get a taste of the mouthwatering dishes served at Balkan Treatbox, like the beloved wood-fired bread and the unique flavors of cevapi, and how every dish tells a story. This conversation is not just about food; it’s about passion, perseverance, and the joy of bringing people together through delicious meals.
[00:00] Meet Loryn Nalic
[00:13] Early Food Roots
[00:55] Pastry Breakthrough
[01:46] From Sysco to Pappy's
[03:21] Launching the Truck
[04:49] Food Truck Reality
[08:35] From Truck to Restaurant
[09:16] Balkan Menu Tour
[12:19] Design and Identity
[15:12] Opening Challenges
[18:47] Lunch Only Growth
[23:03] Precision and Pastry
[24:10] St Louis Food Community
[27:37] How to Visit and Follow
[28:47] What is Next and Farewell
Takeaways:
- Loryn Nalic's journey from culinary dreams to James Beard Best Chef accolade is truly inspiring!
- Building a food truck is not just grilling and cash registers, it's a complex culinary adventure!
- The St. Louis food scene is thriving, with chefs supporting each other like one big happy family!
- Every dish served is crafted with love, using fresh ingredients and traditional Balkan recipes!
- Transitioning from a food truck to a full-fledged restaurant has its challenges, but the rewards are worth it!
- Social media is the lifeblood of food trucks – it’s how they keep their hungry fans in the loop!
This is Season 9! For more episodes, go to stlintune.com
#balkantreatbox #jamesbeardaward #stlouisfood #foodtrucks #balkanfood #streetfood #balkancuisine #woodfiredcooking #handmadebread
Thank you for listening. Please take time to rate us on Apple podcasts,
Podchaser, or your favorite podcast platform.
00:00 - Untitled
00:05 - Interview with Chef Lauren Knowlich
05:01 - The Journey to Food Truck Success
13:03 - Transitioning from Food Truck to Restaurant
15:25 - Challenges of Opening a Restaurant
29:09 - The Future of Dining at Balkan Treatbox
Arnold
Congratulations to Loryn Nalic on being awarded the James Beard Best Chef Midwest. I had the opportunity to sit down with Loryn one month after she and her husband opened their restaurant. Here is that conversation.Loryn Nalic and her husband are the chefs and owner of Balkan Treat, box 8103. Big Ben. It's great food. And Loryn, what's your background? You've been in the food industry for a little bit, but take us back.
Loryn
Sure. A long time. My mother was in the industry in front of the house and then my grandparents were chefs. I had a cousin in the industry. Naturally.My first job was busing tables at Lemons and in the South City that is now owned by the Gribbich family. Yeah, friends. So it's wild to see how that's transformed. But just always had a knack for the business.Just wanted to try everything and started doing busing, waitressing, bartending, serving, and got into cooking. Always loved to cook and create things. So it kind of went hand in hand.I had kids young, so I started baking cakes for friends and kind of doing the pastries at family events. And my cousin Kurt Vonderhauer was the chef at Turvey's on the Green at the time.And he would say at the holidays you can make money doing this, just do pastries. And so I was a stay at home mom at the time.So I took the Culinary Institute of America's culinary book and I just read it and would practice the recipes and try new things. And he offered me a job as the pastry chef there. That was fun. It was my first real kitchen job and just grew it from there.I wanted to do other things. So I took a job as a prep cook at Fraser's and I ended up doing their pastry program as well. Ended up at Luciano's working for the Del Pietro family.So did their pastry program for their restaurants. All their bread production. Then went to Cisco because the kids got older and so went to work for Cisco in food sales.So I got to learn that aspect too. Taught me a lot about ordering and organizing the kitchen and how things work in terms of the financial part. But it was short lived.I'm not a salesperson. I was on the hill and they were wanting me to sell the Hill toasted ravioli that's frozen.
Arnold
Trying to sell toasted ravioli on the hill. Yeah, that would be extremely difficult.
Loryn
Exactly.So at the time I was really good friends with Mike Emerson of Pappy Smokehouse and he was about to embark on that huge and life changing endeavor and I jumped on Board resigned from Cisco and did their special events and catering and just got involved in the food community. That's really around the time that the St. Louis food scene changed.People started coming together, working together, building one another up, really working hard to put St. Louis on the map. And I just knew I wanted to be a part of that somehow.All of these years leading up to Pappy's, though, always wanting in the back of my head thinking, oh, I'm going to do something on my own someday. I'm going to open this, I'm going to do that, blah, blah, blah.It evolved, right, because I had young children, so it was every few years, it was something new because the ideas that I was doing, that I had in my head were being done, and it was fast and it was changing. I had been with Pappy's for a really long time. I had set myself a goal there.I said, when I get to this point as Pappy's, I want to try to start working on my own. And that came eight years later. I talked to them and they held my hand and kept me on payroll and helped me open the food truck. And now we're here.
Arnold
Now, how long did you do the food truck?
Loryn
So I went over to the Balkan region in 2013, came back and started working on the build out of the food truck. We had a lot of issues with the build out on the food truck, so it got put to the side for a little bit, unfortunately.But we had our first service in December of 2016. So 2015, officially, I had left Pappy's and the barbecue team. I had worked at Adams for a little bit, helped open Bogarts.I went to work with Farmhouse and did some work with Josh Galliano. I worked at Companion Bakery.
Arnold
Just like you, made a lot of good contact.
Loryn
Exactly, exactly. And I needed them. I needed them to be able to do this. This is a passion project that a lot of people helped. We have.Mailee ended up working on Muto at the same time. And Marianne had moved back from Chicago. So she basically was our first employee on the track. It was just me, Edo and Marianne on the truck.And I would call Queen and be like, do you need Marianne today? No, you take her. So it was us, and we had so much fun, but I wouldn't have been able to do that. We couldn't afford an employee, you know what I mean?But we didn't realize we were going to need another person on the truck. So it just evolved that way. That's just one of the ways that all of the community has helped out in one way, shape or form.
Arnold
Talk a little bit about the food truck because a lot of people, they may not understand the complexity of what goes into a food truck. They may think, okay, you've got an oven on there or you've got a grill on there and a cash register. What more do you need?
Loryn
A lot. So much more. You have to have a commissary.And at the time, Pappy's was our official commissary, but we were doing bread at Pastaria in their wood burning oven. That's where we did our test batch to figure out what we were going to do prepping at Farmhouse Gribbich, Lemons Nudo. We were all over the place.We also have a wood burning oven on the truck. We have a fire rotisserie on the truck and then a wood burning grill as well. So it is hot, it's really hot.So all of those things going into it and we are cooking fresh on the truck. So we're baking bread every day on the truck. Everything is grilled and cooked to order for us. Everything wasn't pre cooked.Really a lot more complex to do it that way. But in the end it all paid off because we ended up gaining a really good following and people believed in our product and wanted to help us.And that was the best part about all of the trials and the hardships of having a truck. Because you battle weather, you battle places to park.We would show up at City Garden and have to pull away because there was no place for us to park. That would happen at Wells Fargo.All the places that are designated for food trucks here in St. Louis, and we're a very seasonal city, people don't come out when it's cold or when the weather is changing. It's just the way St. Louis is. So it's harder on food trucks to get out there and to make a living.Eda was actually working at Visia when we first opened and I was running basically part time by myself with Marianne. And we were getting so busy and so busy by me. We would go out and sell 15, 20 people and on a day that we did 38, we were all high fiving.It wasn't long to go from 38 people to 80 to a hundred. It was a very quick turnaround. People were curious and so you would come to the truck and be like, oh, I really like that food.I'm going to bring my friend. And it just became this word of mouth thing because our truck was fun to look at and it Smelled really good and people walked by.But the words and pictures, nobody understood what this was. So it was hard to gain those customers right off the bat was just not familiar to them. But it ended up working. This was a kind of a test situation.Will this work? Will this food work? So Edo quit his job and so we were bulk full time on the truck. So all of our income was coming from that.And our kids worked a window and we would work in the kitchen part. Just pump out as much food as possible. But we're starting at 4 o' clock in the morning because we bake our own bread as well.So there's nothing, anything that comes off the truck or out of this restaurant.
Arnold
That isn't stunt pre done.
Loryn
Yeah. Everything's made from scratch. Trucks live and die by their social media. You have to be on top of your social media with the truck.It's the only way people know how to find you. And keeping it up to date is it's a full time job.
Arnold
So for those of you out there that really think food trucks are real easy, think again.
Loryn
So hard people always, they're like, oh, I think I want to open a food truck. And I'll always. Are you sure? Are you sure you want to do that? No, I've. I love our truck. I love the food truck community here in St. Louis.I think we have a really large fleet for a small city. I think that's cool. We have a lot of variety. People are doing really cool things.I think it's awesome considering that we can't operate all year round. Unless you're Dave Choi. He totally operates all year round. But do no.
Arnold
The truck is parked right.
Loryn
Right now. It is parked. We the plan was to have it running for spring and summer but the restaurant has really become a beast all on its own.So to do what's required to get the truck running and the restaurant running would require a team on the truck. That would take a lot of training.It's basically we'd have to train exactly the way we're training inside the restaurant because the restaurant can't do any more food. So the restaurant can't act as the commissary for the truck. Our refrigeration units are full. We're stocked full of food here.
Arnold
So the truck's on their own and the restaurants on their own.
Loryn
It would have to be that way.
Arnold
Talk about the food you mentioned. You said the food and people weren't quite sure what you were. Talk about what kind of food that you served on the truck.But Talk about what kind of food you serve here in the restaurant.
Loryn
It's the same. We did three menu items on the truck. We do street foods from the Balkan region mostly.Either foods that kind of pull from Edo's childhood and his memories and food that was pulled from my travels. So it's both. We do all of our wood fired bread. It's called somon. It's specific to Sarajevo. It's always wood fired.We do a version of ours here, over there. They're really large and they cut them in half in order for us to be able to execute the food on the truck manner is a little smaller.We're still doing it that way. We do tilapi, which we do in house. Beef sausages. They don't have casings. We do it with kaymak cabbage salad.
Arnold
You make your own sauce.
Loryn
We do. We do a lot of it too.
Arnold
That's a huge deal.
Loryn
It's a huge deal. It is. It was funny. I was talking to Suyo Gribich the other day and he was like, now you can't ever not do them.
Arnold
That's right.
Loryn
It's a lot of work.
Arnold
People will know when you substitute Jimmy Dean's or something. Not quite the same.
Loryn
Not quite. So we do cevapi. We do pide, which is a Turkish style flatbread. We used to do just beef and cheese on the truck.Now we're doing a beef, a cheese, a chicken, a vegetable of the day, and a vegan version called the impossible. I think you've heard of the impossible burger. So we're doing an impossible pide and just super fun. Wow. We have a donor, which we do chicken lamajin.Lahmajin is another style of flatbread from Turkey. But we roll it up and that lemony parsley salad in there. And the beef on it is a spicy beef. We do a burger. It's called a piaskovica.It's a Balkan burger.
Arnold
It's really good.
Loryn
Thank you.
Arnold
It's really good.
Loryn
Thank you. We stuff it with cheese and we do a fish sandwich called balik ekmek.
Arnold
And that's really good.
Loryn
It's our version of what that is. But it's funny when people think about what is the food of Istanbul and there's more balik ekmek than there are donor chefs. I don't know.I feel like it was like the sandwich of when I was there.
Arnold
Wow, that's interesting.
Loryn
But it's just translates to fish and bread. And we do ours grilled and it's really simple, really clean. Really fresh. It's one of my favorite things on the menu.We do a sandwich called the Patagon, which is eggplant. It's different. It's got egg, eggplant, pickles, cucumbers, cheese, Kaymak grill, grilled eggplant, obviously.But it's a fun kind of new take on an eggplant sandwich. You should try it.
Arnold
We had it.
Loryn
Oh, okay.
Arnold
We had one of each.
Loryn
Okay. It has apricots and pomegranate molasses.
Arnold
I don't remember that.
Loryn
Yeah, it's really good. And a bunch of flavors.
Arnold
Like a garden.
Loryn
It is. It's a garden.
Arnold
When I look around the restaurant, I see a lot of bright colors. I see things that are simple yet elegant and really defined Bosnia and colors. And even going into the restrooms.It's like you're standing overlooking a balcony into a city. It's really cool.
Loryn
Thank you. Elegant. That's so nice. It was difficult to come up with a design for the restaurant because the truck is so vibrant and fun.And the colors, they're all very specific to why we chose the colors that we chose. And we just needed to figure out, how does bulk and tree bucks grow up from a food truck to a dining establishment? And this is what it became.And all of these things, like the bathrooms, for example, we're doing street foods, right. So we wanted to make it feel fun and full of energy. Like you when you travel to these places. A lot of times you get.You go to these markets when you're walking through the city. And that's how we wanted it to feel. So we were very literal about that.And we put photos of the city of Sarajevo and of Istanbul, like, landscape, like, in the bathroom. But it's like the markets of those places, which I love so much. Some people are like. They're so touristy. But that's where the energy is.
Arnold
That's right.
Loryn
You're just walking around. You just feel all of that energy. And we love color.The rivers in that region of the world blew my mind, because I couldn't believe that they weren't seawater because they were turquoise rivers.
Arnold
Wow.
Loryn
I just kept asking, are you sure?
Arnold
Yeah.
Loryn
This is a river. This is a river. Where's the sea? Because I couldn't believe that the color of the rivers were turquoise and green and blue.So that's where the color came from. And then our truck is a map.And originally it was supposed to be turquoise and black, but when the designer came in and changed it, I just looked too menacing. It was Scary. It was like this, like turquoise with this black map on front. It just didn't look right.And Edo, if you start getting into conversations with Edo about his childhood and his background and his home, he will definitely mention cherry trees and cherry blossoms. So when I showed him the photo and he was like, tell him to turn it Cherry Blossom Red. I was like, okay. So I told him and he did.And it was like, that was it. Wow. That was it. Wow. And the stars, they just always came up in the travels and on the flags. I grew up in South City and in the old brick buildings.I grew up in a home that was over a hundred years old. And we had the star that also would tend to my mind.So one of the reasons why it was star in our logo is just because it was just something that I kept seeing. The whole design of the restaurant came together with a lot of great people that worked really hard and helped things be the way they are.We like it here.
Arnold
What were some of the challenges of opening the restaurant and what are some challenges as the restaurant continues to grow?
Loryn
I think the biggest challenge just getting it open was the fact that we got this space mostly because it was a turn, quote unquote, turnkey operation. The hood was already installed. There was refrigeration here. The walk in was here. There were some prep coolers here. The layout was great.So in our minds it was just like, this isn't going to take very long. We just need to turn it over real quick. That's not how things work in an area like this.So there was a lot more to doing business in Webster than we thought.
Arnold
Had to bring things up to code or.
Loryn
Yeah. There were just so many things that we didn't know going in that we ended up having to get.And that kind of slowed us down and blew our budget out of the water. In the end, obviously, everything was okay and we made it through and we were grateful.But those were huge challenges, like trying to figure out, okay, like, how do we get what we need without overdoing it? Because we're really not doing much here. But we didn't change any of the structures. There wasn't a lot of demo in here.We changed the floors and there was tile on the walls that came off. It was the most of the demo that was done. All of that in your head, you're like, this isn't that hard. And it's not like I went in blind.All my friends in. What do you think of this space? How long do you think this is going to Take and what do you think it's going to cost? And those things.But I was talking to John Marr at Frisco across the street, and he is the one that kind of put it in perspective for me to understand why it was the way it was. And it totally makes sense. I get it. Webster is an old cool town. This town has a great reputation. We have great businesses here.We have this old architecture.They just want to make sure everything is staying quaint and staying so they can still uphold the reputation that they have for being such a great neighborhood. So I understand why we had to do everything that we did, but it wasn't any less challenging.
Arnold
And the gorgeous oven that you finally got into the establishment here after shutting.
Loryn
Down Big Bend and taking out a window in the building, that would have.
Arnold
Been a sight to see.
Loryn
It was early in the morning, but we made it happen.
Arnold
And great copper color that's on there. And my wife and I saw you working on that one night.
Loryn
You helped.
Arnold
We watched.
Loryn
We copper gilded the oven. And the same copper gilding treatment is on the map in the restaurant too. The map of the Malkins, which is the same one from the truck.But yeah, that was also another holdup was the oven trying to choose one for the space because it's not a big space, but also making sure that it was big enough to do the volume. Yeah. And then I Talked to Matt McGuire over at Louis and he put that in perspective for me and said, how many can you control at once in there?Like how many can you actually do at a time and have control over?
Arnold
And then at that point, duh, it's a perfect size.
Loryn
Yeah, this is a great size. So she's working out very nicely.
Arnold
This is nuisance. I was here last about the pictures of the entrees. That. That's very helpful.
Loryn
Thank you. Yeah, that just went up yesterday. We sold the paper menus so you can cross reference what you're going to get.It also helps anybody that's at the register to sell an item if they're feeling unfamiliar. Okay. I really like this dish. And that's what it looks like. And then you can put it together from there.I think that it's really helpful mostly because the words are really intimidating to try to pronounce.
Arnold
It's good to have number one to give me four or. Yeah.
Loryn
So we are open for lunch only right now. Originally that was not the idea. Honestly, we thought we would be open from 11 to 7 or 8 every night.But knocking on wood here, we've had Such a great response that what we thought we would be doing in an entire day, we're doing at lunch.
Arnold
And that's crazy.
Loryn
It's crazy town.
Arnold
That's really good, though.
Loryn
We're really grateful. Really grateful.So we decided that it would be better to work out these numbers with lunch and figure out how to expand into dinner service at some point instead of trying to battle the when we're selling out and then thinking that every single person has access to social media, which they don't. This isn't a food trap. We know that. It's a restaurant.So in order to control the chaos that could happen for us, it makes a lot of sense just to open for lunch for now and then it's going to be another investment for us. This is. You asked me this question earlier. What are some of the challenges here in the restaurant space? We have a walk in downstairs that is full.So now we're just trying to figure out, okay, how do we grow? We just. We doubled our staff. We just purchased a roller that. So we were hand rolling everything with a rolling pin.
Arnold
Did you hear that, folks?
Loryn
Yeah.
Arnold
Wow. Hand rolling with a roller pin.
Loryn
Yeah. So that was. I was doing close to 200 rolling pin items a day. Wow. So we just were able.
Arnold
Your forearms must be powerful.
Loryn
Look like drumsticks. Like a turkey leg. But yeah.So we bought this piece of equipment that is cut that time in half for us to produce so we can produce more essentially, like volume there. So that's gonna help.We have some other things coming up and it's gonna help with the challenges of being able to produce more food, hold more food here. It's a lot of training.We're training this staff and we'll have to train a whole new other staff on techniques and things that they've never done before. And it's difficult. These are all great problems to have. We feel really grateful.We just want people to understand that if we don't do things the way that we've been doing them for so long, the product will suffer. And that's not something Edo and I are willing to compromise on. We want to make sure that bread is baked every day you come here, you're guaranteed.That is bread from today. That the flatbreads are from today. We're one of the only places in town that actually still builds our own rotisserie for the donor.And when that's out, it's out. We season, butcher and build that rotisserie every day. We're making our own sausages. We're Patty pattying our own Piazza vezzo, which is our burger.Every single thing we're touching, it requires a lot of space. All the food that we're producing just for lunch. So in order to do a second service, it's going to require some investment and time.But we're excited to do it.
Arnold
The quality of the food and the taste of the food that got you fear anyway. And you don't want to compromise on that.
Loryn
No, I don't think people want us to do that either.
Arnold
Absolutely not.
Loryn
People that have supported us and that are supporting us now, I don't think that's what they want. Just to be able to serve another 100 people.
Arnold
And something that's exacerbated the lunchtime situation has been the number of carryouts.
Loryn
Right? Yeah. So we're a 50 seat restaurant. But it was brought to my attention that really we're acting as a hundred seat restaurant because we'll get.People will stand in line to place carry out orders and they're 10, 11, 12 items to go. Wow. You imagine what that does to a three person kitchen. A little tiny line.
Arnold
But you guys are managing and managing well.
Loryn
We are. We're in our one month, so we're one month open and it feels good. We had service today and we had to go orders and we're getting faster.You wait in line for 15, 20 minutes and then your food is at your table. When you sit down, there's not much of a wait.I think maybe on the weekends because people sit a little longer, you're not waiting more than 15 minutes ever.
Arnold
Okay. I want to take you back to your pastry days.
Loryn
Sure.
Arnold
Did you have difficulties going from the pastry side to the cooking side or was there different kinds of challenges there?
Loryn
There's always different kinds of challenges. I always cooked though too.Pastry was just something at the time that made more sense for me, mostly because I did have children and that happens here a lot. The bread's not right. We'll throw it away. Not throw it away. Just not serve it if something's not right.Because maybe the temperature in the oven is wrong or maybe that day the temperature is different in the room that we're rolling out the bread. All of those things.
Arnold
Humidity has a lot of huge.
Loryn
So there, there are days that are. You're like, yes. And then days that you're like, what happened? But no, it wasn't. It's not difficult.I run this whole kitchen pretty precise, like baking anyway, so everything we have is measured out by the gram.We're looking forward to getting this all figured out so we can run specials and have some fun with food from the Balkans and just introduce some new things and some new takes on some old things and things like that.
Arnold
Would you comment a little on the St. Louis food scene? Because St. Louis really is a great food town. It's beginning just to be recognized nationally. Food and Wine has really picked up on that.Some of the other food magazines are acknowledging that. Food critics talk a little bit about the food scene here and where it has come from and where do you think it's going to go.
Loryn
What you said is a testament of the people that are doing that are doing things in St. Louis and helping one another out.I think Balkan Tree Box has been one of those kind of hand holding kind of situations where we're getting really great press and everybody is working hard to together to make sure that St. Louis is put on the map. It's really important to all of us that St. Louis gets recognized for what we're doing here. We're working really hard. We're working together.You're not going to see as many cities doing as many collaborations or restaurants helping other restaurants to open even food trucks. Most restaurants will open doors to food trucks to let them come in and do their thing to get out there and cook good food.And the community is tight and it's rare that you can't find somebody to lean on.And you're talking about the, the Kevin Nashins and the Gerard Crafts and Cui Tran and Mike Emerson and to people that are newer, like myself, like Bill Cawthorn at Frankly Sausages, like Mandy from Plantain Girl. There's all these new people coming up to you and the guys that have done really well here have helped when they are helping.And that's what it's all about. I didn't see that, what, 15 years ago, 10 years ago. It started about 10 years ago, I would say. And I think it's only getting better.We're cultivating family here. We're cultivating a place that people will want to travel to just to go eat food.And it's always been joked about that we're a flyover city, but I think that our food scene is doing more for St. Louis than anything else.
Arnold
The food is an ambassador for the region here.
Loryn
Agree.
Arnold
And I think it's an anomaly at how the chefs really interact and get along with one another and support one another as opposed to some other cities like Chicago or New York or LA or even Las Vegas.
Loryn
Yeah, competition is great, right? It's Good for everybody to feel com like there are people that thrive with competition.But I think you're in a smaller town, you're going to have more repeat customers here than you will a bigger city because people. There's so much tourism. Right. So it's really important for us as a community to stay together.And Elmwood opened I think the same week we did and we were both equally excited. We're like messaging one another. So exciting, so happy for you. But we couldn't get to see each other.But still having just even message sent in support, it just makes you want to work harder and try harder because you want them to succeed.And Frisco across the street from us, like watching them open and then having him in the middle of all of his chaos opening walk over here and help us. He was here checking on us all the time and he's not even from the industry. So that was wild. His that's what you need in order to succeed.And I think we all want the same thing for St. Louis.
Arnold
So how can people follow you on social media? Facebook page, website, Twitter.
Loryn
Yeah, all of those things. Our handle is at Balkan Treatbox. Website is balkan treatbox.com and Facebook.
Arnold
Just look up on Balkan treat box.
Loryn
Yeah. Balcontreat box time.
Arnold
Do you Open?
Loryn
Open at 11.
Arnold
And Monday through Friday or Monday through.
Loryn
Friday, Wednesday through Sunday. There you go.
Arnold
Wednesday through Sunday.
Loryn
Wednesday through Sunday, 11 o'. Clock. Come early, please come early. And then we are open till 3 unless we sell out so you can look for the sellout sign on the doors.We also try to post as soon as we sell out on our social media handles. We don't update the website with when we are out of food, but we do keep it on our social media.
Arnold
You're keeping it fresh. You're keeping your food high quality which everybody appreciates.And if you haven't had a chance, if you've been turned away like we have several times, it's okay. It's not the end of the world. You just get here a little earlier and you arrange your schedules and they're working some things out to.To make it work for dinner scene. And that's something to really look forward to.
Loryn
Yeah, we're working on getting our liquor license and have dinner service. I don't want to promise any dates but for us we're excited to do it. So the sooner the better.
Arnold
You're shooting for the future here.
Loryn
We are. We're seeing for future. Yeah. Soon. Yeah.We're hoping to see people in here at night having beer, local beer, glass of wine, can of wine, like Grab and go. So we're excited about it.
Arnold
Excellent.We've been talking to Loryn Nalic of the Balkan treat box and folks hope that you take some time to visit the restaurant and visit them frequently. Visit all the restaurateurs that Loryn mentioned. Great place to eat in St. Louis. We are fortunate to have many here. And Loryn, thanks again.Appreciate it.
Loryn
Happy to be here. Thanks so much.
Arnold
Thank you.





































