▷S2E4 Love from Solid Rock at Lokanda Devetak

When Tatjana Devetak's grandfather said he wanted to carve a world-class wine cellar out of the solid rock of the Karst plateau, everyone said he was crazy. "Who will come to see it?" people said, as he carved each stone by hand. Then the excavation uncovered a trench from World War I, buried below this family's extraordinary restaurant and inn, where travelers and locals alike have enjoyed the hospitality of the Devetak family since 1870. The extra space enabled the Devetak family to realize their dreams of a program where the local wines, which grow up from the same harsh rock, are showcased with the same pride as the family's Slovenian mother tongue.  

This episode was recorded onsite with sounds of kitchen, refrigerator and telephone. Tatjana translates for her father, Avguštin Devetak, and also speaks for herself. 

A note from Rose Thomas: "As I sat down beside the lace-curtained window and got to know the Devetak family through a dinner that expressed the culture of the Karst with love and pride, I thought, 'Oh my god, this restaurant has terroir.' The Devetak family reminded me why we all do what we do in the world of restaurants, winemakers, sommeliers and writers. After six generations of hospitality, Lokanda Devetak is the height of locavore culinary tradition. The meals I enjoyed there were among the best of my life."

Ascolta in italiano / Listen in Italian

Subscribe to the newsletter!   

A visit to Lokanda Devetak in San Michele del Carso—in northeast Italy not far from the Slovenian border—is highly recommended.
www.devetak.com
Follow Lokanda Devetak on Instagram: @lokandadevetak

• Expand for auto-generated transcript. (Please excuse errors.)

  Perché noi parliamo lo sdoveno in Italia? Perché noi parliamo lo sdoveno in Italia? Why do we speak Slovenian in Italy? For 500 years, since 1917, this region was under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Under this Empire, we spoke Slovenian, German, Friulian and also Italian language. Welcome to Modo di Bere, the podcast about local drinks and local sayings.On your host, Rose Thomas Bannister. Today, I'm at my new favorite restaurant, Locanda de Devetak, with Tatjana and Avgustin from the family who I understand have been running this restaurant for six generations. Yes. Ah, amazing. I arrived last night after being told by everyone in this region that I needed to visit, but I didn't do a big research before arriving. I was just welcome to this amazing house which is like a living museum but not a museum in the sense that things don't happen anymore. I feel actually now that I know the story of your great -great -great grandfather fixing the shoes that I'm still welcomed into your family home. It's a wonderful atmosphere. The place is so beautiful. I had just really one of the best meals ever in my life, not just for the amazing quality of the foods that are, I know, grown by your sister, prepared by your mother, served to us by everyone, but also an amazing experience with Augustine choosing for us a glass of wine with each of our courses. Wonderful wines. Some I knew, but some Skerk, for instance, I hadn't had. Oh, just really, really lovely wines. And then Tatiana took us into the cellar, I stayed in the beautiful room. And now we're here talking, sharing, and it's just the kind of things I'm interested in. So it's a really incredible place, and I hope everyone comes to visit. Please tell me more about the family today who is working here together. - In these days, we are my parents and my three sisters. My older sister runs a farm that provide us with vegetables, fruits, jams and so on. The other three sisters working together here in the restaurant. One is in the kitchen, one is in the sala, servicio. And I help my sister in the rooms and also I work in the back office. Nice. What are everybody's names? Augustine? Yes. Tatiana? Yes. Sara, the older sister, Tiasha, Michaela, and my mom is Gabriela. So I just met Gabriela just now. I came down for breakfast in this beautiful old -fashioned room and ate a frittata with herbs that was so good and beautiful cheese, beautiful yogurt, and I smelled the chicken stock coming from the kitchen. Anyway, I think the frittata made from him. Ah! - Augustine. - Ah, Augustine, okay, okay. It was delicious. So I smelled this beautiful smell. Gabriella emerged from the kitchen and brought me in to show me all the chicken stock and the bread dough and, you know, my life is really local farm products. So this place excites me very much. So six generations, Lokanda Devatok. This interest in the regional wine here and the amazing seller. It's probably why so many people recommended that I come and visit. So I wonder Agustin, is this a special interest of yours or has wine and the wines of the territory always been a part of the stories. He was about three years old and he visited the seller Growner, Yoshiko Growner. He was there about three hours talking about wine and then at the end he didn't drink any wine. Garner said "you are not ready for my wine". First of all learn study study and then we'll be ready and from that was the starting of curiosity of love for the wine he started to start. Visit every cellar visit every seller in Fjordivetsna Giulia and make some courses and yes so I recognize this this name and I really like this story but for our listeners briefly could you explain who is who is Kravner? Josko Grauner is one of the most one producers in Fjordivetsna Giulia but he is still a farmer because he is the best for the natural wines. The first that takes barric here and the first that has cancelled it, eliminated it, he started with the maceration of the grapes. He started also to take anthra here in our region and he is very, is for natural wines, natural producers and is a person that knows how what does it mean work in wine arts. It's the the best of the wine producers. It's the for a lot of people is the guru of the wine maker. Is he the origin do you think of the new orange wine movement around the world? was the first that started to work with maceration and that then this orange movement moved to the world. He said also one thing that every big restaurant in the world has almost one bottle of groundwork. It's a canteen. Yes, it's it. I remember in my life working in Italian wine, I worked at a wine shop run by a man from Sardinia, with kind of like this place, big beautiful furniture, old, you know, nice rug, just nice old surroundings, and there was a wooden case in the middle of the room with all the most exciting bottles, and right in the middle was Grafner. So Moto di Beria is about wine and about language. Also other drinks, but mostly wine, mostly Italy. But it's also about the story that language can tell about a territory just like wine. And when we started, I was speaking as if per gli italiani, perché questo è davvero quello che faccio. Agustino ha detto "no, siamo di la Muzza Sloveniana" e c 'è una distinzione qui che voglio parlare di più. Perciò mi dimenticano di essere i sloveniani di Slavenia, qui, in questo paese. Siamo parlando di produttori di Cincoglio che iniziano con orange wine, this grounder, Radikon Castellada, then he mentioned also Primozic, Princhic, Milcarpino, Cisciol, Fiegel, that are producers in Oslovia of this orange wine, that are also in Vienna, like we are, so in Vienna that lives in Italy, but he said we cannot forget also Carso region, but also here we have a lot of most the producers of wine are Slovenian that are Zildaric, Benjamin, Sandish, Matej, Radokocian, Vodopivets, also Kante, all of those are wine producers are also Slovenian and they are like in Berda, in Carso, it's the same this is why he he then said this is the red nine because also they are Slovenian we are here in the region it's on the border why do we speak Slovenian in Italy? we are talking Slovenian in Italy for 500 years till 1917 this region was under the Austro Hungarian Empire. Under this empire we were talking in Slovenian, German, Shulano and also Italian language. Then in 1917, Italy comes here, occupied us, we said always like that, and then we have to speak just in Italian. It was an ordinary, we cannot choose what language can we talk even if we were Slovenian we have to speak just in Italian but we live here before Italy comes and we are very proud to be Slovenian. In 1945 there was this fascism that we cannot talk in our native language after this year then slowly things changed and now we have our defenses and we can have our language, our community and our staff. Today Mattarelli is the Italian president and Pajor before, there's not any more Pajor president. We'll receive Laura at Honorem for all the work that they do in this years to put together these two realities, Slovenian and Italian, all these things of putting together two communities started in 2016 after 100 years of the First World War, where in Dauberdaug have inaugurated a monument for all the Slovenian soldiers that fights one for the Italians, one for the Slovenian, and came the two presidents. This time was Matarajland, Borg Pajor, and at the end of this inauguration, they come here and have lunch, and was the first event of this-- - Reconciliation. - Yes, reconciliation, yes. - What is this karst? Is it a place, a town, a rock, a region? What is the Karst? Karst is a geographical place. It's not a town. It's a kind of region, but it's between Italian Slovenia. Once was together, now it's the border, but the border is not anymore. It's mostly rock. Just 20 centimeters off of earth, then it's just rock. It's a lot of caves. The water falls don't don't remain up because of the first world war also because of the cold war yeah it's destroyed because it's a lot of caves that are natural but also excavated from the soldiers and also Trinciae trenches yeah where the soldiers are down And also another thing, in Carso, we have... - Beautiful. - Much as biodiversity like in all Germany. So it's very, very particular and very beautiful. We love that. - So speaking of the deep rocks, I have to ask you to describe the cantina here because you told me that your grandfather carved all the bricks by hand. And I find It's just hard to imagine. It's amazing. In 1994, my father and my mother decided to make this cellar, wine cellar, because they went around in Italy, in Friuli, to see other places, other restaurants. They had this idea to make this cellar. And people here around said, "Are you crazy? Do you know what that means to scavare?" - To excavate. - To excavate in Carso, it's just a rock, it costs so much. Who will come here to see these things? You are crazy. And they decided to go ahead. And Per tre mesi hanno escavato questa cosa. Tutti i toni erano in un altro posto. Poi il mio padre, per tre mesi, ha fatto questo tono regolare. E poi si poteva, come vedete, all 'arce. Doveva essere più piccolo. E poi, When they excavated, they found a trench of the First World War, so they have more space and they go. I just have to say that story and being there, it's unbelievable, it was really an experience. So to answer the question of your neighbors, of your grandparents, who will come to see this? I will come to see it and I will feel very moved. where we are here is just the oldest part of the house here in this corner when you see the shoemaker lab it's the original place where all started because my grand -grand -grandfather was a shoemaker. He prepared the shoes, and then his wife said, "You want a glass of wine? Do you want some soup?" And then started to, when the people waiting for the shoes, my grand, grand, grand mother gave them something to eat. What about the rest of the house, and what was it like to grow up in this museum? In 1817, when it all started, it was just a little house with the roof in Paglia. Paglia. Paglia, it's a horse is it. Yeah, hey. The roof was like that. Then the years slowly, slowly they enlarged this house. In 1915, so about 40 years later, they have to go away from this house because here was the first world war, all the population of the village has to go in Austria because the population was evacuated in a safe place. When they returned in 1918, the house, all the village was destroyed, so all of our population has to rebuild the house, all the houses, so they have to start again. When they returned in 1918, they found another country. My grandmother was a stranger in his own home because he has to talk in Italian and pay in lira. And when she go in the 15, she was talking in German and Slovenian and pay in corona. So it was a shock for all the people here. Then slowly they start all their lives very, very slowly. And it was a typical Trattoria in the 16, 1960 arrives the water, arrives the Eletricita asfalto, very, very late here. And then people come to start to come from the other villages. My grandfather was a farmer, so he was all the day in the woods, in the camp. And they went in the evening, he was here with the people of the village. When my father grew up, he take this place and started slowly to enlarge. I don't want to take too much more of your time because I can see what a big work it is for you every day and you have to go serve lunch, but for me it's such a big world of language. I can't possibly learn them all so my entrance, my door is the sayings. I can see that you speak so many languages, all of you, beautifully, But I wonder what sayings we can share in Slovenian or another language. [Spanish] We live in the present to look in the future but not to forget the past. [Spanish] [Spanish] Thank you. Thank you. And thank you so much. It's Lokanda Devetak. I'm going to put the links to how you can find out about this place in the notes for the show, DEVETAK .com. You have to check it out. Come and make a visit to this region from everything you learn from this program and from the YouTube episode about the wine. But when you come to this part of the world, you have to stay here, I say, wherever you go and whatever you like to drink, always remember to enjoy your life and to never stop learning. - Support us on Patreon. Grab the newsletter at motodiberry .com and subscribe to the YouTube channel at Motodiberry to watch the travel show, Motodiberry TV. Music for the show was composed by Arcilia Prosperi for the band O. Purchase their music at the link in the notes.  

Music composed by Ersilia Prosperi for the band Ou: www.oumusic.bandcamp.com

Produced and recorded by Rose Thomas Bannister

Audio and video edited by Giulia Àlvarez-Katz

Audio assistance by Steve Silverstein