A postcard from Nathan Thornburgh, our co-founder and publisher.
Today is Bourdain Day, an annual moment of reflection to mark our partner’s birthday. The truth is, of course, that when you travel like we sometimes do—relentlessly, impulsively, as if evading multiple warrants—any day can be Bourdain Day.
To whit: last night I was at the Zemun farmers market in Belgrade, a short walk from the hard rock bars lining the Danube, for the one serious meal I had planned during a 30-hour layover. I came to Koordinata restaurant in the market (pictured below), because who wouldn’t want to go to a place like this? In a side alley, a few tables flanked a kitchen barely the size of a pushcart, serving unnecessarily excellent dishes to a handful of diners. Most days, when the market vendors start packing up their tomatoes and courgettes, and the cats emerge to see what the butchers left behind, Koordinata starts prepping for a long, wine-soaked service with serious French touches but distinctly Serbian products, most of it grown on chef Stefan Živković’s farm near Novi Sad.
What I didn’t know is that the Koordinata team—Stefan (pictured), Miša, Patricia—are friends with some of the same ghosts I’m on friendly terms with. Escoffier and Brillat-Savarin, for sure, but very specifically also Anthony Bourdain. First hint: in the window of the kitchen, next to a packed wizard’s pantry of ferments and tinctures and a few jars of shake from a Serbian herbalist, is a small stack of books, anchored by Srednje Pečen (Medium Raw) by Entoni Bordejn. And there on the otherwise rotating seasonal menu is one unchanging dish, the only homage on the list: Chicken Liver Anthony Bourdain, a towering pile of sautéed livers, bathed in butter and plum reduction, slumping heavily over a slice of homemade brioche.
Tony never set foot in this market. He never filmed in Belgrade, or anywhere else in Serbia. Yet there I was last night drinking village wines and swapping stories in the soft afterglow of his life’s work. Humble Koordinata built its improbable success—it was recently ranked one of Serbia’s top 25 restaurants—in that same Bourdain-built hall of mirrors that we at Roads & Kingdoms often live in. Tony was inspired by places like this, he glorified them in his writings and his shows, and in turn, a certain kind of idealist keeps bringing them to life, often with a copy of Srednje Pečen on the pass.
Happy Bourdain Day to all who celebrate.
