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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Customer Friendly: Cafe Adriatic owner Luka Dvornik serves wine to customer Howard Graham during lunch.
Cafe Adriatic is Willow Glen's newest restaurant
By Jim Aquino
The new year looks promising for one of Willow Glen's newest restaurants, the Mediterranean eatery Cafe Adriatic. As its clientele grows, owner Luka Dvornik has been trying to finish remodeling the cafe's roadhouse-style building, which is also occupied by the four-year-old Goosetown Cocktail Lounge.
"Willow Glen is a cute little town," says Dvornik, a former co-owner of Cupertino's Cafe Torre restaurant. Dvornik, who opened Cafe Adriatic April 1, says he likes how Willow Glen doesn't feel rushed and frantic like other areas of Silicon Valley.
"Rushed" is a word Dvornik uses to describe preparations for their opening day, which he says ultimately turned out well and attracted a huge crowd, the result of word of mouth and the curiosity of locals who watched as Cafe Adriatic was being constructed in the site previously occupied by the Italian restaurant Giuseppe's. There wasn't any advertising for Cafe Adriatic's opening.
"When we were doing remodeling, people were driving by and walking by and wondering when we were going to open," Dvornik says.
The cafe's menu includes pastas, meat entrees and seafood dishes like shellfish and halibut, which are popular in Dvornik's seaside hometown of Split, Croatia.
Italian cuisine is served frequently in Croatia, hence the menu's inclusion of Italian pastas like spaghetti with meat sauce and fettucine with smoked chicken.
Dvornik explains that the popularity of Italian cuisine in his homeland is due to the proximity of Italy to Croatia.
"Some Croatians speak Italian and some Italians speak Croatian because they are so close to each other," he says.
One of Cafe Adriatic's most popular dishes is the Mediterranean spinach salad, which is covered in a pancetta vinaigrette that's so tasty Popeye ought to consider slathering his pre-fisticuffs spinach with it sometime.
"It's not too sweet but nice," Dvornik says. "Pancetta is like a prosciutto. It has a lot of flavor to it. Once you cook it up and then add all the spices, it's really good."
Early next year, Dvornik will add a wine bar to Cafe Adriatic.
"We're going to take one wall out and build a little bar. People are going to be able to eat at the bar, so we're looking forward to that," he says.
Customers can also look forward to the daily specials on the menu, which Dvornik constantly changes. While supervising the remodeling of the restrooms on an early Monday morning (the restaurant is closed on Mondays), Dvornik thinks about the specials he's going to serve the following day. He says he'll probably serve both veal scaloppini with mushrooms and Madeira wine sauce and halibut in Mediterranean tomato sauce for lunch the next day.
"I like changing the menu. Cooking is all about experimenting," Dvornik says. "It's nice to always do something different."
Cafe Adriatic, 1072 Lincoln Ave. Open Tuesday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. (lunch) and 5-9:30 p.m. (dinner), Saturday-Sunday, 5-10 p.m. Closed Monday. For more information, call 408.292.4866.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
