The first time I met Aleksandra and Dalibor Vujanovic, co-owners of the then-small European Market on South Burlington’s Williston Road, I had no idea the family was responsible for some of my favorite locally baked rolls.
More than two decades ago, Dalibor’s parents, Draginja and Ugljesa Vujanovic, started baking lepinja rolls from a family recipe and selling them through local stores including Burlington’s City Market, where I buy them.
The round, soft-bellied, chewy-crusted lepinja rolls make a great breakfast sandwich and a perfect cradle for cold cuts. They also stand up well to hefty fillings, such as roasted vegetables and fried meat cutlets. The label describes them as “Mediterranean Bread,” although the recipe originates specifically in the Balkan region, which includes the former Yugoslavia, from which the Vujanovics also hail.
Late last year, Aleksandra, 39, and Dalibor, 49, moved their store a few doors down from its home of a decade to a much larger space, which was previously Marco’s Pizza. As of mid-January, at the back of the expanded European Market, Deli & Café, customers can now order sandwiches made on these delightful rolls filled with many of the European specialty meats, cheeses and spreads stocked in the retail part of the 2,300-square-foot space. There are 18 feet of coolers stuffed with sausages, pâtés and smoked meats facing almost equal footage of pickled vegetables, from beets to peppers.
The new deli and café also offers espresso drinks and, as of this past weekend, breakfast sandwiches. Freshly baked burek pastries of scratch-made phyllo wrapped into savory coils contain seasoned meat, cheese, mashed potato or spinach. Desserts include several made by Dalibor’s mother, including baklava and a rich, walnut-studded Bomba cake topped with marshmallowy frosting.
In the snug seating area, I tried two sandwiches and a slice of the Bomba cake ($7.99). The No. 2 ($14) fulfilled all my sandwich dreams with my beloved lepinja loaded with smoked beef, smoked sausage, feta, pickles, fresh veggies and ajvar, a spread made with roasted red pepper and eggplant. Later that day, three types of burek ($4.99 to $7.99) reheated beautifully for dinner.
Word has spread quickly among Vermont’s European expats. Finishing up their lunch of burek and cake on a recent Saturday, longtime market customers Dubravka Abramovic, 56, and her husband, Nijaz Sedic, 58, of Hinesburg said they had been eagerly anticipating the new café.
The couple, who came to Vermont from Bosnia 30 years ago, shop at the market regularly for “sweets,” Abramovic said — “and meats,” Sedic added.
“It feels good to have a nice, cozy place to go to for a cup of coffee or a bite of something to eat that reminds us of home,” Abramovic shared later by email.
A couple of days later, Mirela Poljak, 27, sampled the potato burek while her boyfriend, Jackson Crawford, 26, munched happily through a sandwich of cured meats on lepinja. Poljak’s family is originally from Bosnia, though she was raised and still lives in Burlington. “This is something I grew up eating, but I want others to try it,” she said of the kind of food on the menu.
Others have also discovered the café. State reps Emilie Krasnow (D-South Burlington) and Matt Birong (D-Vergennes) chatted over sandwiches at a corner table. “It’s great to have a local, family-owned place to meet constituents and neighbors,” Krasnow said.
It was Krasnow’s second day in a row eating lunch there, she said, adding that, like me, she had also shopped for supper, buying pierogi from a retail cooler and baklava for dessert.
I, of course, also picked up a bag of my favorite lepinja rolls.