How a family built a renowned restaurant after returning to Croatia 

Ivan and Marina Žganjer (Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Marina and Ivan Žganjer are celebrating 50 years of hard work and culinary excellence with their family-run restaurant in Jaškovo, Croatia.

Their story is a real treat for those who appreciate tales of dedicated people who have built everything with their own hands and it’s a story that will make you want to visit Jaškovo, a place nestled between Karlovac and Ozalj, where this family runs their restaurant.

It all began in the 1970s when Ivan went to work in Germany, but his parents wanted him to return home. Ivan agreed, telling his father he would come back if they opened their own butcher shop, as his father was a butcher and winemaker.

Ivan and Marina Žganjer (Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

This is how the meat business started, and soon enough, this hardworking local went back to Germany to earn the money needed to open his own tavern.

He knocked down the roof of the family house, laid a concrete slab, and had the bar built by a local carpenter.

Although his parents weren’t thrilled about the roof being demolished, they supported his ambition to open a hospitality venue that initially only served drinks, with an occasional roasted lamb or piglet.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Salads were prepared in the house’s kitchen, which had a small hatch for serving orders. Of course, the locals doubted Ivan’s venture would last long.

“In the 1980s, business picked up, and we became popular. Every day, there was a demand for extra chairs and more kilograms of lamb. We did a lot of cooking at local church and fire brigade celebrations in the surrounding areas and even across the border in Slovenia, which helped us gain many new customers.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

In 1990, we made a big decision to expand, upgrade, and equip a professional kitchen along with all the necessary facilities. With my wife Marina, I opened the restaurant. We spent a long time deciding on the name and eventually chose to put our family name on it—so ‘Buffet Lovac’ became ‘Restaurant Žganjer,’” Ivan reveals.

Over the years, they’ve become famous for their lamb dishes, which remain a signature offering of the restaurant to this day.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Ivan and Marina sourced lambs from Krk, Pag, and Cres, and the quality they offered led to several expansions over the past few decades.

From day one, they had only one vision: to provide guests with homemade food, a hearty meal that would satisfy them, and this has remained at the heart of their philosophy to this day.

“Hospitality is a dynamic job with no fixed working hours. You work the most when others have their days off. Family business can be especially challenging because the line between work and personal life often blurs, but it also has its advantages as we all understand each other better.

Everyone contributes their unique skills and talents, which enriches our story. Still, in the end, the customer has the final say. From the perspective of parents raising children in such an environment, there are certainly days and moments when family duties take a back seat, but on the other hand, children naturally learn good work habits and grow up in an interesting work-life environment, interacting with a variety of people.

Despite the challenges, we believe we’ve successfully passed on to our daughters the understanding that family is the greatest treasure and the true meaning of life,” explains Marina, who is now assisted by her daughters, Lidija and Alenka.

Marina and Ivan Žganjer with daughter Lidija (Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Today, the restaurant is best known for its lamb, which even features on the family crest. Their guests eagerly anticipate the second half of December, when they are among the first in Croatia to serve young lamb of the highest quality, sourced from trusted suppliers on Pag and Krk.

They only roast the freshest meat, and all other ingredients are sourced from local farms whenever possible. The Žganjer family also has its own vegetable garden, raises pigs, and prepares their own noodles, bread, gnocchi, desserts, pickles, and preserved peppers.

“In addition to the spit-roasted lamb, guests particularly love the gourmet lamb liver pâté, lamb tripe, and the unmissable lamb liver ‘Jaškovo style,’ served with fresh cheese and cream.

In recent years, our homemade soups rich in flavour have also become popular—beef soup with homemade noodles, porcini soup from the nearby forests, and pumpkin soup.

Our top three meat dishes on order are veal medallions in sauce, Ban Frankopan’s sword, and medallions in Karlovac beer sauce.

In recent years, we’ve also added dishes inspired by the rich history of the Ozalj region, drawing inspiration from the cookbooks of the Zrinski family from the 17th century.

We cannot forget, especially since 2015 when the world’s longest strudel was made in Jaškovo, setting a Guinness World Record of 1,479.38 metres—the homemade strudel. Alongside lamb, strudel, especially during Strudlafest, is an iconic symbol of the restaurant,” say Marina and Ivan, who still prepare strudels the way their mothers, both named Dora, did, hence their desserts are called ‘Granny Dora’s Sweets,’ which also include Karlovac biscuits and the Katarina Zrinski cake.

Today, the restaurant employs around ten staff throughout the year, with this number increasing depending on the season. Many employees have stayed with them until retirement, and the staff often refer to the restaurant as their second home.

People work there for ten, twenty, even thirty years, and the Žganjer family is immensely grateful for their dedication.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

“There have been challenging times, moments of fatigue and frustration—we’re all human, with our worries and troubles. We’ve worked through rain and difficult conditions, but when you see happy guests who have been coming to us for decades, it all fades away.

We’ve ‘followed’ our guests from their childhood, through baptisms, first communions, and weddings… We’ve become friends with many of them, and those are the real treasures and joys,” Ivan proudly shares, as Marina joins in.

“When you do the same job for so many years, you face numerous changes and challenges. We’ve successfully navigated them over the decades, or we wouldn’t have survived, let alone grown. Nowadays, finding staff is especially challenging.

It’s a shame that young people from the area go abroad for the same jobs that are in demand here—no one can cook and present traditional dishes of their region better than a local chef. Satisfied guests create the best atmosphere—when business is booming, we forget our worries, aches, and even the south wind… (laughs).

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Our staff have security, reliable pay, additional rewards, and bonuses for work anniversaries, free accommodation at our seaside apartments, and we enjoy gatherings with food and music,” says Marina, who has worked nearly as long as Ivan, as he started before they married.

The Žganjer family, despite everything, are still full of energy, taking on their daily responsibilities. In fact, they have plenty more ideas and wouldn’t change a thing. They are grateful to have created such a wonderful story with their staff and guests.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

And to finish, they shared their recipe for the perfect autumn treat—a rich porcini mushroom soup.

Rich Porcini Mushroom Soup, for 6 People

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

• 1 kg of fresh porcini mushrooms

• One large yellow onion

• 50 ml of oil or homemade lard (no more oil is needed as the mushrooms are naturally fatty)

• Salt

• Pepper

• Black wine (Frankovka), to taste

Wash the porcini mushrooms and separate the caps from the stems. Dice or slice the stems thinly.

Sauté the chopped onion in oil with a pinch of salt until it softens and turns golden.

Add the chopped stems and cook, occasionally adding water. Once softened, blend the mixture, adding water if needed to achieve the desired consistency.

Season with salt, pepper, and, for an autumn flavour, add local black wine, Frankovka.

Finally, add the sliced mushroom caps and cook briefly, allowing them to enhance the soup’s flavour.

If fresh porcini mushrooms are unavailable, you can use frozen ones, blanched or not, as needed.

Cream can be added, but in our experience, the soup is already rich in the natural flavour of fresh porcini mushrooms.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Dobar tek!