Hot on the heels of winning the James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Midwest,” Loryn Nalic has launched a new project.
The acclaimed chef, along with restaurant co-owner and husband Edo, announced two new cocktail programs at Balkan Treat Box and Telva at the Ridge. The expansion into wine and spirits is rooted in Balkan tradition, offering diners a new way of experiencing the region’s vibrant culinary heritage.
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“Both [programs] are built with the same intention that has defined the food since day one: start with the culture, taste the tradition, and make something worth talking about,” Nalic said in a release announcing the news.
The Menu
The Nalics have brought in two respected industry veterans to lead the efforts. Corey Moszer, previously of Press and The Lucky Accomplice, will run the beverage program at Balkan Treat Box, in addition to managing its front-of-house operations.
Nalic describes Balkan’s cocktail menu as an “intentionally tight,” “best of the best” list, similar to the restaurant’s small but well-curated food menu. Diners can expect cocktails focused on ingredients like vodka, pomegranate, orange, lime, sumac that feature prominently in Balkan beverages. Among the offerings at Balkan Treat Box:
- Old Fashioned: Made with bourbon, rakija (a fruit brandy that has been distilled across the Balkans for centuries), sour cherry, black pepper, and bitters.
- Spritz: Pairing tequila with apricot, cardamom, prosecco, and agda, a house-made syrup with notes of vanilla, rose, cinnamon, and orange.
- Sutlija Sipper: Nalic is particularly excited about this unique drink, made with toasted rice-infused aged rum, agda, pistachio, lemon, and rose water, clarified with the restaurant’s signature dessert, sutlija.
All of the drinks will also come in fully non-alcoholic versions.
Mikael Hegerstroem, formerly of Louie and Elmwood, will run Telva’s beverage program. According to Nalic, the menu is “organized around mood rather than spirit.” Among the cocktail options:
- Telva Spritz: Marrying apricot rakija, kina l’aero, white grape, lemon, and limonata
- Greenhouse Gossip: A melange gin, black pepper, lime, cucumber, basil, and mastika, which Nalic describes as the resinous Balkan liqueur made from mastic tree sap that is prominent in the region’s drinking culture.
- Fortune Toddy: An apple brandy libation made with chamomile-saffron tea, burnt honey, lemon, and warm spice).
- Bloody Baba: A cousin to the Bloody Mary, with notes of dill, smoke, tomato, roasted red pepper, smoked salt, lemon, and dill.
In addition to cocktails, both Balkan Treat Box and Telva have also launched wine lists focused on the Balkans and neighboring wine regions. At Balkan Treat Box, look for producers from Slovenia, Austria, and Italy, while Telva’s concise list features a Furmint from Tokaj and a Lambrusco from Emilia-Romagna.
“Both programs will continue to grow, with an increasing focus on producers from Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and the broader Balkan peninsula,” Nalic said in the release.
The Backstory
The Nalics first opened the food truck Balkan Treat Box in 2017 as a way to shine a light on Balkan cuisine, which has a robust presence in and around the Bevo Mill area, thanks to the area’s large Bosnian diaspora, though it was not widely known outside of that community. The couple found instant success and soon expanded the brand to include a brick-and-mortar space in Webster Groves in 2019, as well as the coffee and daytime concept Telva at the Ridge, which opened in 2024 and operates out of Webster Groves’ Rolling Ridge Nursery.
Like the food offered at both restaurants, the new cocktail and wine programs are fiercely intentional and designed to offer diners a transportive, celebratory experience of Balkan cuisine and culture.
“We don’t put things on the menu just to have them. Everything we do has to reflect the flavor and history of the Balkans,” Nalic said. “It’s the same ethos we have for Telva’s coffee and tea lattes. Corey and Mikael have been working on these menus for months. I’m so happy with the results, and I think they do a really great job of showing people here another aspect of the Balkan dining culture.”
