La Storia, Ljubljana, Slovenia

La Storia - friendly staff, pleasant environment, much recommended. Come and experience this story.


Miha Novak - CFO and acting manager for Bosnia at Akton - international supplier of telecommunication services. Native Ljubljana citizen, EF graduate, worked for Cankarjev Dom (very good times), Collegium (very good times) and Siemens (getting serious). Started international travelling at the age of 16 and crowned it with a long around-the-world trip in 2001. Recently read The Kite Runner and while he will one day go to Kabul, he frequently goes to Šmarna Gora - many do. One needs to constantly grow and try to achieve maximum although it never is there when you reach the peek - you only get to see the next peek in the distance.


All La Storia restaurants all look pretty much the same. And they have a good reason for that. People like it that way.

The Future, Anywhere, World

Just a couple of people I would very much like to have a BlogLunch or two with. Craig and Larry. J Craig Venter, first sequencer of human genome and Larry Page, co-founder of Google. Photo off the Edge.

Lounge Kakao, Brezovica, Slovenia

Kakao Lounge - a weird mix of hip'n'cool lounge and open air pig roast, cool bar interior and cheap fast food appendix. The big smoking dog on the wall lures you in, but also sets expectations way too high. One needs to make up his mind.


Marko Filipcic (Filipčič) - one of the fathers of BusinessConnect at Marg - where he is also sports director. Grew up in Šoštanj, now lives in Žeje near Naklo. FRI graduate, EF postgraduate wannabe, worked for Zaslon which was acquired by Hermes Softlab. Keen footballer, lately mostly occupied by his 15 months old son Jonatan and currently finds time to read only project management books - to maybe free up some more time. Schoolfriends used to call him Kita and if he would win big time on lottery he would wait for his son to turn 7 and then think seriously about what to do. Maybe wait some more years for future brothers and sisters of Jonatan to turn 7, too? :)


Jure salad - bearing bosses name, yet does not deserve to do just that.


Neighbouring the Lounge is new and very cool business house, built by Unija, the accounting company, hosting also Marg.

Gostilna Lovec, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Gostilna Lovec - a while ago somewhat pimped up place that again slid back to mass-producing student lunch stronghold. Not bad at all, but different than what it used to be. Recommended if in a hurry - and lower budget.


M.R. - pursuing diplomatic career, currently working for Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ljubljana. Grew up in Jesenice, partly German origin, living in Ljubljana with Law degree from PF. Worked for PIC (helping NGOs), served dimplomatic tours of duty (postings) in Bosnia, Hungary and USA, surfing, skiing, traveling around (road-trip fan) and concert going - big time (favourite Pixies). Latest book was Marko Zorko's Knjiga Mrtvih and extra time and money would buy him his own Formula 1 team ... and if that fails he will buy and run a straw-roof-beach-bar somewhere in the Caribbean. Of this type. Diplomacy prefers incognito :)


How do you know a restaurant is primarily for students? You have glasses of water already waiting for their instant gratitude. When the going gets tough, the students get ... tougher. We've all been there. Respect.


September 16-22 is European mobility week. We so don't like cars this week in Ljubljana, that public transport is free of charge. Hop on!

Kratochwill E.Leclerc, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Kratochwill - one of three in Ljubljana, this one as part of E.Leclerc, giant French retailer. Big, massive - demands faster returns, quick processing and not much time for one-on-one service. Same goes for Kratochwill and it's service here - not the best of treats one hopes for. Although they did manage to quickly upsell me to double the wine order. Maximizing the return on seat :)


(Džangir) Dzangir Kolar - project manager at Normacom, born in Kotor Varoš in Bosnia, living in Ljubljana, EF (post)graduate, worked for Maop, Datalab and Marg (update needed:). Džangir (Djangir) is a name common in Central Asia, given to him as tribute to an Azerbaijani friend that his grandparents were in business with. Keen international traveler, among other experienced Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian and recently beauties of Guatemala. Extra time and money would allow him to see even more world, hang out with friends and organize social events - while staying connected to IT in one way or another. I've heard that before.


Later that same day, somewhere in Ljubljana (Barjanska 66). It seems that the likely runner ups (Pahor, Golobič) in the coming elections are already in a homey coalition :)

Pizzeria da Mattia, Trzin, Slovenia

Pizzeria da Mattia - very popular pizza and pasta Mediterranean place in Trzin, the suburb of Ljubljana. Featured also on the Dobre Gostilne site. Recommended.


Dario Vlahovic (Vlahovič) - system administrator at Tuš Telekom and Vzdrzevanje.com consultant, currently on a deserved "newborn fatherhood" vacation. Croatian-Montenegro origin mix, grew up in Tržič, living in Preddvor and finishing Informatics at ŠCV. Used to work for AskPro (recently merged with UnistarLC), enjoys biking and hiking and above all spending time with 1 year old daughter and her a week and some old sister. Reading (second time around) Perfume by Süskind and has The Hobbit in pipeline. With extra spare time and money he would pimp up older cars - mostly through electronics. The Dario Ride.


Sauvignonasse a.k.a. Sauvignon vert: Unlike Sauvignon gris, which is a clonal mutation of Sauvignon blanc also found in Chile, Sauvignon vert has no known connection with Sauvignon blanc.

Medana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Gostilna Medana - a very, very welcome addition to Ljubljana culinary scene. Newly opened restaurant, likable, chic interior, roses on the tables. And if you happen to be served by this guy, you're in for a superb treat. Name Medana comes from a village in western part of Slovenia, reknown for its very good wine. Of course, served also in this restaurant. Thumbs way up!


(Boštjan) Bostjan Kofol - Sales force member of Big Bang company in Merkur Group. Rok's brother, with Kofol family steming from a small village Lom above Kal nad Kanalom. EF graduate, worked among others also for P&G and Manpower, the employment services leader. Used to play basketball, still does football and on a P&G business trip to Movie Pub in Zagreb, he met his true life passion: karaoke. He started karaoke.si as his side passion business which is growing and leading him into expansion. Getting more and more excited about history books, recently read Putin's Russia for which Politkovskaya had to die. Regulary enjoys time with is friends in Žmavc and plans to take painting and dancing classes. One day he will have a big ranch, help save lost, abandoned and stray animals and do lots of free-diving spearfishing, but he offen holds his breath already today while playing Texas Hold'em with Poles and the gang.


Food is not only very good, but also beatiful. Eye pleasing servings.


Trnovska vrata in Ljubljana. Quickly sold out recent property development - close to highway ring and center. As good as it gets.

Tomato, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Tomato - a pleasant fast(er) food restaurant in the center, run by company, mostly known for their vending machine sandwiches. They also operate Čolnarna, a nice place at the small lake in Tivoli park in Ljubljana. Their sandwiches and restaurants are all recommended.

Hunter Chen, cultural affairs atache at US Embassy in Slovenia - helping get various people with various reasons go easily in and out of US and Slovenia. Born and raised in Los Angeles in a family of Taiwanese descent. Prior to earning his Law degree from USC, he tried the field of nuclear engineering, but did not persue that path as their test reactor in Oregon leaked. Safe move. Worked for legal departments at Universal Studios and LA Lakers, moved to US State Department, currently under Rice rule, where he served at consulate in Guangzhou in China and just recently moved to work US Embassy in Ljubljana, with his wife, custom made gaming PC and Nissan Murano following him :) Avid PC gamer (current favourite Company of Heroes) and enjoyes tweaking his PC - and for the record: shopping with his wife. Sci-fi reader, recommends Harry Turteldove's alternate history stories. Given free hands and blank check (preferably backed up by government) he would kick start commercially viable no-gasoline car production or develop a fully self sustainable green island. Whoa!

Pigeons and doves constitute the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerine birds - there you go :)

Puttanesca, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Puttanesca - after a while a very nice, fresh and positive surprise from a not so long ago opened Italian place. Located in Modra Hiša, quite big and spacey, yet very elegant and stylish. Thumbs up! Good food, wine and service is implicit.


Peter Festanj (Feštanj) - Account Manager at HP in Slovenia, driving a black VW Passat. Grew up in Zagorje, now lives in Kranj and his Feštanj family are the only ones in Slovenia and sometime in the past centuries, they decided it's better to be alive than Jews and they switched to Catholics. FOV graduate, EF postgraduate, long ago used to transle subtitles for TV shows and did some programming, worked for IUS Software and SRC.SI, before joining HP troops. Consistenly working on lowering his golf HCP 44 at driving range in Brdo, where he is occasionally seeing president Türk on Cult bike - one of them was also given to Bush W. Currently reading The Master and Margarita, doing a lot of travelling and with his friend Tomaž Oštir supporting beekeeping initiative in Cambodia - with help of SustainableCambodia.org May the honey flow freely and wildly.


See through kitchen, dynamic staff, lots of vacancy during business lunch time - Hint: no reservation needed.


With my seafood risotto, I let waiter serve me wine of his choice. Jakončič Karolina Rebula. Decent choice.