Balkan Treat Box

Loryn Nalic spent years as a pastry chef at some of St. Louis’ top restaurants, but it wasn’t until she met her husband, Edo, that she began to explore the delicious potential of traditional Balkan cuisine. Edo emigrated to St. Louis from his hometown of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to escape the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Wanting to recreate the foods of Edo’s homeland, Loryn spent years traveling through the region, learning time-honored recipes firsthand from local chefs and home cooks. The result was Balkan Treat Box, which took to the streets of St. Louis in 2016 and was immediately hailed as one of America’s best new food trucks.

The beloved food truck was a runaway hit, and a brick-and-mortar location soon followed. Balkan Treat Box’s lineup of flavorful and comforting traditional Balkan street foods made it one of St. Louis’ hottest restaurants, and the accolades soon began to roll in, including being named one of America’s Best New Restaurants by Esquire and Bon Appetit and one of Food & Wine’s Best Bites of the Year for 2019. And to top it off, Loryn was a 2020 James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Chef: Midwest. From pide (Turkish boat-shaped flatbreads) topped with beef, cheese, and chicken to cevapi (Bosnian sausages) tucked into somun (pita-like flatbreads) and topped with creamy fresh Kajmak (Balkan-style clotted cream), this is a true taste of the Balkans, and it’s being delivered straight to your door!