Opened in September 2023, Restaurant Krug near the waterfront in Split is gearing itself up for its first summer.
Seasonal and organic underscores the concept here, thanks to a local farm which supplies the vegetables. The fish is line-caught from the Adriatic, the meat exclusively Croatian.
So far, so good. But another factor here is size. While many restaurants in the major Dalmatian resorts try to cram in as many tables as possible, Restaurant Krug ranges a dozen seats around the counter, around the open kitchen, in fact, where your dish is prepared.
The team is equally small, five, including three chefs, bound by their worldwide gastronomic experience and their desire to create something unique in their home town of Split.
Time Out Croatia spoke with chef/owner Karlo Kaleb about the crew behind Krug and the freedom of a daily changing menu.
Time Out Croatia: Please tell us about the team behind Restaurant Krug.
Karlo Kaleb: Krug is a small team with five of us working in service, including three cooks, Ivan Barać, Leo De Stefani and myself, Karlo Kaleb. In charge of wine and drinks are Jure (‘Jurica’) Delić and Marie Charlotte Leblond.
I worked with Ivan for years on a yacht. When we went our separate ways, he started to work with Leo De Stefani. When I went to work in Copenhagen, I met Jurica and his girlfriend Marie. This is how it all started.
I believe we provide a more modern approach to service, with an open kitchen and a very cohesive team. I think guests can feel and see the difference. We do not want to be labelled as a fine-dining restaurant in any case, but consider ourselves a place where we will always strive to serve tasty and well-executed food, prepared from the highest-quality ingredients. We will always try to serve a drink that complements the dish, and where guests can relax and have fun, accompanied by the kind of music we usually listen to.
TOC: Is a location just out of Split’s historic centre a disadvantage?
KK: We’re close to the Old Town, on the West Coast promenade. From the city centre, it’s a quick and easy walk. You can also park outside the entrance or use one of two car parks nearby. Hotel Ambasador is just in front of us, as well as the West Coast marina.
TOC: Does only having 12 covers make profitability difficult?
KK: Having only 12 covers is very challenging, but our guests like the personalised approach and constant communication. This way, they are also a little more involved in the overall experience. Guests like the cosy and relaxed atmosphere.
If they haven’t been in this type of restaurant before, they quickly adapt because they see that we are pretty relaxed ourselves. We genuinely want every guest to have a special experience with us – as they’ve decided to devote us their time (and money), we think that it’s the least we can do. We want to stay true to our vision, and we hope people will understand our passion.
TOC: How easy is it to source your ingredients?
KK: We pay special attention to selecting ingredients, which must be fresh and organically grown. We source our meat from a local butcher with whom we have been collaborating for several years. All stages of production, from breeding to slaughterhouse to our restaurant, are controlled for the highest quality. We exclusively serve Adriatic wild fish.
This is the reason we print the menu on a daily basis. If something we served yesterday cannot be served tomorrow, we simply remove it from the menu and offer a new dish as a replacement. This way, we give ourselves the freedom and control over ingredients, unlike a classic printed menu that requires a specific piece of meat or fish, putting you in a situation where compromises must be made to satisfy what’s on the menu.
As for fruit and vegetables, we mostly work with a small farm from Marjan. They grow their produce in the old-fashioned way, without using greenhouses or sprays, exclusively using what nature provides.
We also use dry-agers in the restaurant, allowing us to age fish and meat. This concentrates the flavour of the ingredients, eliminating excess water. Everything we serve on the menu is produced in-house, the bread, the butter, the pickled foods, and non-alcoholic beverages such as kefir and kombucha.
TOC: How often does your menu change?
KK: The menu at Krug adjusts according to the ingredients available, so we don’t have a fixed schedule for changing it. We are quite fluid and change dishes in agreement between ourselves when we’re sure we can complement them with a selection of drinks.
We often change dishes just to avoid monotony –everyone is eager to learn and progress, so we try to make it quite dynamic. We haven’t changed many of the snacks at the top of the menu, but dishes in the middle and desserts have been swapped around quite a lot.
Currently, the menu is designed so that we first serve three hand-held snacks. Here we can show the widest range of presentation and technique. It starts with Adriatic shrimp, then fish and finally beef. The middle of the menu consists of more substantial dishes, mostly fish with sauces we make based on our own fermentation. The main course is meat-based, which at the moment is dry-aged veal with peas and asparagus, with seasonal salads and young fennel-infused jus.
After the main, we start with a pre-dessert, which represents a bridge from savoury to sweet, and serves to cleanse the palate to prepare for dessert. This also changes according to season and we are working on a new, strawberry variety.
Finally, we serve sweet bites, which currently consist of almonds, white chocolate, pear and barley caramel, and a bite of pumpkin that we have aged for two months in a honey liqueur solution, wrapped in orange zest sugar.
Restaurant Krug, Trumbićeva obala 17, 21000 Split. Open Wed-Sun 6pm-midnight. Reservations here.