> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.mododibere.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # ▷S4E2 Love from Solid Rock at Lokanda Devetak - URL: https://www.mododibere.com/podcasts/en/s4e2-lokanda-devetak/ - Published: 2025-09-13T00:59:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-12T01:44:19.000Z - Description: "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 sisters working together here in the restaurant." - Author: Podcast - Tags: English Podcast, #no-paywall, Season 4, Restaurants with Terroir, Slovenian (Language), Family Stories, #Migrated-1786647123788, #sqs, #Import 2026-08-13 18:52, Italy, Slovenia, Austro-Hungarian Empire, History of Language, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Carso, #Karst, Oslavia, Brda, Doberdò, WWI, Wine History, Orange Wine, Sommelier, Local Languages, #minoritized-languages [Ascolta in italiano / Listen in Italian](https://www.mododibere.com/podcasts/amore-dalla-roccia-a-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." > [ View this post on Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOtY2T2DS7J/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) > > [A post shared by 🍷Modo di Bere Podcast/Travel Show about Drinks + Dialect 🇺🇸🇮🇹 (@mododibere)](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOtY2T2DS7J/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) > [ View this post on Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7vMfI%5FtYyW/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) > > [A post shared by 🍷Modo di Bere Podcast/Travel Show about Drinks + Dialect 🇺🇸🇮🇹 (@mododibere)](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7vMfI%5FtYyW/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) > [ View this post on Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOotKVEj9Ca/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) > > [A post shared by 🍷Modo di Bere Podcast/Travel Show about Drinks + Dialect 🇺🇸🇮🇹 (@mododibere)](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOotKVEj9Ca/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) 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](http://www.devetak.com/?ref=mododibere.com) Follow Lokanda Devetak on Instagram: [@lokandadevetak](https://www.instagram.com/lokandadevetak/?ref=mododibere.com) **Auto-generated transcript.** (Kindly excuse immaterial errors.) View Transcript ## Slovenian in Italy: A 500-Year-Old Question — 0:00 AD: Perché noi parliamo lo sloveno in Italia? TD TRANSLATES: Why are we 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, Friulano, and also Italian language. ## Welcome to Lokanda Devetak — 0:29 RTB: Welcome to Modo di Bere, the podcast about local drinks and local sayings. I'm your host, Rose Thomas Bannister. ## A Restaurant Run by One Family for Six Generations — 1:01 Today I'm at my new favorite restaurant, Lokanda Devetak, with Tatjana and Avguštin from the family, who I understand have been running this restaurant for six generations. TD: Yes. RTB: Oh, 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 welcomed 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 Avguštin 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 Tatjana 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. ## Meet the Devetak Family — 2:16 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. TD: In these days, we are my parents and my three sisters. My older sister runs a farm that provides 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, servizio, and I help my sister in the rooms. And also I work in the back office. RTB: Nice. What are everybody's names? TD: Avguštin. RTB: Sì. TD: Tatjana. RTB: Sì. TD: Sara, the older sister. Tjaša. Mihaela. My mom is Gabriella. RTB: So I just met Gabriella 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. TD: Anyway, I think the frittata made from — him. RTB: Ah! Avguštin. TD: Yeah. RTB: 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. ## Discovering Wine at Age Three — 3:34 So six generations, Lokanda Devetak — this interest in the regional wine here and the amazing cellar is probably why so many people recommended that I come and visit. So I wonder, Avguštin, is this a special interest of yours, or has wine and the wines of the territory always been a part of the story? AD: La passione del vino è arrivata negli anni.... TD TRANSLATES: So yeah, if you visit the cellar owner, Joško Gravner, he was there about three hours talking about wine. And then at the end, he didn't drink any wine. Gravner said, you are not ready for my wine. First of all, learn, 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 with every cellar in Venezia Giulia and, make some courses and, yes. ## Who Is Josko Gravner? — 4:47 RTB: So I recognize this name, and I really like this story. But for our listeners briefly, could you explain who is Gravner? AD: Joško Gravner è... TD TRANSLATES: Basically is one of the most, one producers in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, but he's still a farmer because he is the best for the natural wines. The first that, takes barrique here and the first that has, canceled it, eliminated. He started with the maceration of the grapes. He started also to take amphora here in our region. And he is, very is, for natural wines, natural producers...And this, person that knows how, what does it mean, work in vineyards. It's the, the best in of the wine producers. It's, for a lot of people is the guru of the winemaker. ## The Man Behind the Orange Wine Movement — 6:12 RTB: Is he the origin, do you think, of the new orange wine movement around the world? AD: Sì, lui, e con lui, Stanko Radikon... TD TRANSLATES: Yes. Joško Gravner, Valter Mlečnik, Stanko Radikon, Castellada — Bensa. Who was the first that you start to work with maceration, and then this orange movement moved to the world. And he said also one thing — that every big restaurant in the world has almost one bottle of Gravner. It's a cantina. RTB: Yes. I remember in my life working in Italian wine. I worked at a wine shop run by a man from Sardegna 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 Gravner. \[laughter\] So Modo di Bere 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 I'm speaking to Italians, because that's mostly what I do. ## A Correction: "We Are Slovenian" — 7:01 And Avguštin said, no, we are of the Slovenian mother tongue. And there's a distinction there that I want to talk more about. So please tell me about being Slovenian speakers here in this place. ## Orange Wine Producers of Oslavia and the Carso — 7:58 AD: Primo, di tutto — primo parlavamo del vino — TD TRANSLATES: We were talking about the producers in Collio that start with the orange wines — Gravner, Radikon, Castellada. Then he mentioned also Primosic, Prinčič, Il Carpino, Sosol, Fiegl — that are producers in Oslavia of this orange wine that are all Slovenian, like we are, so we know that live in Italy. But he said we cannot forget also Carso region — also here we have a lot of mostly producers of wine are Slovenian that are: Zidarich, Benjamin, Sandi Skerk, Matej Skerlj, Rado Kocjančič, Vodopivec, also, yeah, Kante, that are, all of those who are producers are also Slovenian, and they are, in Brda, like in Carso, it's the same. This is why he — he then said this is the red line, because also they are Slovenian. We are here in the region — it's on the border. AD: Perché noi parliamo lo sloveno in Italia? ## Slovenian in Italy: A Border History — 9:00 TD TRANSLATES: Why 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, Friulano, and also Italian language. Then in 1917, Italy comes here, occupied us. We say it always like that. And then we have to speak just in Italian. It was an ordine \[order\] — 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 — our defenses, and we can have our language, our community, and our stuff. Today Mattarella is the Italian president. And before, there's not anymore Pahor president. But then we will receive laurea ad honorem for all the work that they do in these 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. We — in Doberdò have a great monument for all the Slovenian soldiers that fight — one for the Italians, one for the Slovenian — and came the two presidents. This time was Mattarella and Pahor. And at the end of this inauguration, they come here and have lunch, and was the first event of this — ## Reconciliation: Italy and Slovenia in 2016 — 10:41 RTB: Reconciliation. TD: Yes, yes. ## What is the Carso (or Karst)? — 10:44 RTB: What is this Karst? Is it a place, a town, a rock, a region? What is the Karst? ## WWI Trenches and Italian Wine — 11:30 TD: Carso is a geographical place. It's not a town. It's a kind of region, but it's between Italy and Slovenia. Once was together. Now it's the border, but the border is not anymore. It's mostly rock. Just 20 centimeters of earth, and then it's just rock. It's a lot of caves. The water fall down, and don't remain up. Because of the First World War. And 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 trincee — RTB: Trenches. RD: Yeah. Where the soldiers \[gestures\] are down and \[gestures like a soldier\]. And also, another thing, in Karst, we have — AD: Biodiversity. TD: Much as biodiversity, as in old Germany. So it's very, very particular, very beautiful. We love that. ## Digging a Wine Cellar Out of Solid Rock — 12:30 RTB: 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 that just hard to imagine. It's amazing. TD: 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? RTB: To excavate. TD: To excavate in Karst — it's just a rock. It costs so much. Who will come here to see these things? You are crazy. \[RTB raises her hand, laughs\] TD: And they decided to go —. RTB: To go ahead. TD: To go ahead. And for months, they excavated this thing. All the stones was taken away, in another place. And then here, my grandfather, for three months, have made this stone regular, to — and then they put it, like you see, the arch. AD: Dovrebbe essere più piccola — TD: Has to be smaller. But then, when they excavated, they found a — trincee — RTB: A trench TD: trench of the First World War. So they have more space, and they go. RTB: 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. \[music\] ## The Shoemaker Who Started It All — 13:30 TD: 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, "Do 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-grandmother gave them something to eat. ## Growing Up in a Living Museum — 14:30 RTB: What about the rest of the house? And what was it like to grow up in this museum? ## 1870: The House That Became a Restaurant — 14:34 TD: In 1870, when it all started, it was just a little house with the roof in paglia. RTB: Paglia? TD: Paglia, it's, ah, horses eat. RTB: Yeah. Hay! TD: 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. RTB: Sì. TD: 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 grand-grand-grandmother was a stranger in \[her\] own home, because \[she\] has to talk in Italian and pay in lira. And when she —go in the '15, she was talk 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 1960s, arrives the water, arrives the, elettricità, asfalto — very, very late here. \[laughter\] 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 \[fields\]. And they went — in the evening, he was here with the people of the village. When my father grew up, he takes this place, and started slowly to enlarge. \[music\] RTB: 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. ## A Slovenian Saying — 16:54 AD: \[unclear\] Si vive in presente per pensare al futuro, ma guardando le origini del passato. TD TRANSLATES: We live in the present to look in the future. But not to forget the past. AD: Grazie, hvala, grazie, thank you, danke. ## Outro — 18:03 RTB: \[delighted chuckle\] 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. *\[NOTE: We are no longer using Patreon! Become a member* [*right here*](https://www.mododibere.com/#/portal/) *to support Modo di Bere & unlock exclusive content.\]* Grab the newsletter. At mododibere.com and subscribe to the YouTube channel at Modo di Bere to watch the travel show, Modo di Bere TV. Music for the show was composed by Ersilia Prosperi for the band Ou. Purchase their music at the link in the notes. ![](https://www.mododibere.com/content/images/2026/08/devetak-family-format-original-1-1.jpg) The Family of Lokanda Devetak Music composed by Ersilia Prosperi for the band Ou: [www.oumusic.bandcamp.com](http://www.oumusic.bandcamp.com/?ref=mododibere.com) Buy their newest album: [folderolrecords.bandcamp.com](https://folderolrecords.bandcamp.com/?ref=mododibere.com) Produced and recorded by Rose Thomas Bannister Audio and video edited by [Giulia Àlvarez-Katz](https://www.giulia-ak.com/?ref=mododibere.com) Audio assistance by [Steve Silverstein](https://www.instagram.com/steveco.worldwide/?ref=mododibere.com) [ The Friulano Language ](https://www.mododibere.com/podcasts/en/s4e3-william-cisilino-friulano/) [ Raw Shrimp in Venice ](https://www.mododibere.com/podcasts/en/rs4e1-trailer-raw-shrimp-in-venice/)