Centenary Inn ©estica
Three Hundred Years Old Foundations
Short description
©estica is one of the oldest Ljubljana inns and, like many others, was originally a carriers' stop on the freight route between Vienna and Trieste. Its original image was preserved by good old Janez Vajkard Valvasor in his intelligible drawing of the town of Ljubljana from 1670. At the time the building had thatched roof and stood between the Dunajska ulica and Avgu¹inska ulica streets as they used to be called. In the course of the years it had many owners and leaseholders, however in 1776 it was leased by an innkeeper and that is when the inn was officially »born«.
Contact data
- Address
- Slovenska 40
- Post
- 1000 Ljubljana
- Telephone
- 01 24 20 855
- Telefax
- 01 24 20 857
Presently Gostilna ©estica - the ©estica inn - is a Business Unit of the Gostinsko podjetje Viè d.d. hospitality and catering public company.
So where did the name »©estica« come from? From the house number, of course! The street name kept changing but the house number always remained 6! However some years ago, when the system of assigning street names and house numbers in Ljubljana was being changed, ©estica was assigned house number 40. If those stuffy town hall officials had a bit more sense of cultural heritage, they would have found a way to keep number six for ©estica.
The doors of the ©estica inn have always been open to travellers and even in more recent years the inn has continued to adhere to the principle of serving the foods enjoyed by most people while also starting to serve some dishes from the international cuisine. In the olden days the menu featured primarily soups with meat, tripe, goulash, stews and roasts, which is characteristic of Vienna-style cuisine or at the very least reflects its influence, while in the 1960s and 1970s they introduced meat platters with several kinds of meat, as well as side dishes and various steaks. ©estica too has kept the tradition of Farmer's Meal featuring pork delicacies in the fall and winter, and that is how it has remained until the present day.
Nowadays the ©estica inn is a beautiful house of hospitality in the centre of Ljubljana. Ljubljana has become the hub of political and economical life of the country and is regularly visited by foreign diplomats and businessmen by virtue of its becoming the capital of the Republic of Slovenia after the break-up of the Yugoslav federation. This is a great opportunity for an inn like ©estica that, with its exceptional central location in conjunction with a well thought-out menu, could well carry the flag of Slovenian hospitality as the typical old inn in the city centre representing a living monument of tradition that is continually being refined by the influence of contemporary times thus ensuring its survival.
Cold entrées include Slovenian-style cold cuts, while hot entrées feature pasta like Karst-style fettuccini, gnocchi with wild mushrooms and sage, and boiled buckwheat strudel with cottage cheese filling. The »Grandma's Kitchen« part of the menu features a selection of traditional dishes like tender beef goulash with rolled bread dumplings, Trieste-style tripe, veal stew with buckwheat mush, barley soup with smoked meat, roast pork in puff pastry served with sauté potatoes, Farmer's Feast (black pudding, fried sausage, bacon, ham, sauerkraut, boiled potatoes) and black pudding or fried sausage with sauerkraut served with boiled potatoes.
However also on the menu are Ljubljana steak with sauté potatoes, ©estica shish-kebab, Karst steak with boiled rice and Hunter sirloin steak with bread dumplings. Fish include Trieste-style trout, grilled sole served with silverbeet and almonds, grilled bass served with silverbeet, grilled stuffed calamari and deep-fried calamari served with Tartar sauce. Or they will prepare something else for you if desired. I had a delicious pan-fried (not deep-fried) Wiener schnitzel. It was beautiful and tasted as if it had been cooked at home - deliciously tender and definitely not run-of-the-mill.
Side dishes also include buckwheat mush and rolled bread dumplings, whilst among desserts we find Perkmurje Gibanica - layered strudel with different types of filling, ©estica trifle, Pohorje omelette and apple strudel.
To encourage good mood in their guests, at ©estica they serve wines from all three Slovenian winegrowing regions. The wine list is not excessively long however, as the most typical Slovenian wines already nicely complement the ©estica menu.
Pleasant atmosphere invitingly beckons to the guests who come to ©estica for lunch during their business hours, and to evening parties who enjoy select foods. The ©estica inn has been gaining in popularity in the recent years, as if the guests have succeeded in locating a nostalgic link to the times long gone and are now reliving them in the warm atmosphere of a good, traditional-style inn.
So where did the name »©estica« come from? From the house number, of course! The street name kept changing but the house number always remained 6! However some years ago, when the system of assigning street names and house numbers in Ljubljana was being changed, ©estica was assigned house number 40. If those stuffy town hall officials had a bit more sense of cultural heritage, they would have found a way to keep number six for ©estica.
The doors of the ©estica inn have always been open to travellers and even in more recent years the inn has continued to adhere to the principle of serving the foods enjoyed by most people while also starting to serve some dishes from the international cuisine. In the olden days the menu featured primarily soups with meat, tripe, goulash, stews and roasts, which is characteristic of Vienna-style cuisine or at the very least reflects its influence, while in the 1960s and 1970s they introduced meat platters with several kinds of meat, as well as side dishes and various steaks. ©estica too has kept the tradition of Farmer's Meal featuring pork delicacies in the fall and winter, and that is how it has remained until the present day.
Nowadays the ©estica inn is a beautiful house of hospitality in the centre of Ljubljana. Ljubljana has become the hub of political and economical life of the country and is regularly visited by foreign diplomats and businessmen by virtue of its becoming the capital of the Republic of Slovenia after the break-up of the Yugoslav federation. This is a great opportunity for an inn like ©estica that, with its exceptional central location in conjunction with a well thought-out menu, could well carry the flag of Slovenian hospitality as the typical old inn in the city centre representing a living monument of tradition that is continually being refined by the influence of contemporary times thus ensuring its survival.
Cold entrées include Slovenian-style cold cuts, while hot entrées feature pasta like Karst-style fettuccini, gnocchi with wild mushrooms and sage, and boiled buckwheat strudel with cottage cheese filling. The »Grandma's Kitchen« part of the menu features a selection of traditional dishes like tender beef goulash with rolled bread dumplings, Trieste-style tripe, veal stew with buckwheat mush, barley soup with smoked meat, roast pork in puff pastry served with sauté potatoes, Farmer's Feast (black pudding, fried sausage, bacon, ham, sauerkraut, boiled potatoes) and black pudding or fried sausage with sauerkraut served with boiled potatoes.
However also on the menu are Ljubljana steak with sauté potatoes, ©estica shish-kebab, Karst steak with boiled rice and Hunter sirloin steak with bread dumplings. Fish include Trieste-style trout, grilled sole served with silverbeet and almonds, grilled bass served with silverbeet, grilled stuffed calamari and deep-fried calamari served with Tartar sauce. Or they will prepare something else for you if desired. I had a delicious pan-fried (not deep-fried) Wiener schnitzel. It was beautiful and tasted as if it had been cooked at home - deliciously tender and definitely not run-of-the-mill.
Side dishes also include buckwheat mush and rolled bread dumplings, whilst among desserts we find Perkmurje Gibanica - layered strudel with different types of filling, ©estica trifle, Pohorje omelette and apple strudel.
To encourage good mood in their guests, at ©estica they serve wines from all three Slovenian winegrowing regions. The wine list is not excessively long however, as the most typical Slovenian wines already nicely complement the ©estica menu.
Pleasant atmosphere invitingly beckons to the guests who come to ©estica for lunch during their business hours, and to evening parties who enjoy select foods. The ©estica inn has been gaining in popularity in the recent years, as if the guests have succeeded in locating a nostalgic link to the times long gone and are now reliving them in the warm atmosphere of a good, traditional-style inn.
