Veslo: Croatian Restaurant Review

When I started this blog I decided that I was going to focus on crafts, family, and my life in New York City. I know I have been lacking a bit on the New York City part, seeing as how I've enjoyed my country getaways quite a bit lately.  It is about time that I start sharing a little piece of my amazing city.  New York is known for so many different things and one of the most important things to me is diversity.  Cultures from around the world are all living together.  While New York is often referred to as a melting pot, I can not agree with this reference.  Yes people from around the world are all here in one place but they are not melded together.  Instead they find a way to hold onto their culture and traditions while sharing in the cultures and traditions of those around them.  I like to think on New York as a mosaic.  Each tile is beautiful in its own right, but when put together they form something even more special.

One of my favorite ways to get to know another culture is through their food.  (Yes, I know this may just be my Italian family food=love philosophy shining through, but I think there is more to it than that)  The food a culture serves can teach you about their location, their industry, and their traditions.  Living in Queens, the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world, I have been blessed with easy access to so many amazing cultures.  Recently, I had the chance to eat at a Croatian Restaurant in Queens.  If any of my readers are anything like I was you may be asking what is Croatian? Until a few years ago when I became good friends with a Croatian I didn't even know a country called Croatia existed. The geographic area has been under the control of other countries and cultures for a long time.  It is not until recently that Croatia has begun to show the world all that it has to offer.  And as I recently discovered, I was missing out on Croatian food!

Veslo is a little Croatian restaurant in Astoria Queens.  The second I walked in the door I was taken by the decor.  There is a modern bar in the front (with plenty of TVs to show the soccer games on), yet the rest of the restaurant speaks to rustic Croatian culture.  The world Veslo means ore in Croatian.  This is a fitting tribute to a culture strongly based on their relation with the sea.  The ceiling of the back dining room is lined with ores brought from Croatia.  The wooden tables, shelves lined with actual Croatian tributes to the past, and back patio all make it easy to imagine you are sitting in a foreign land away from the modern New York hustle and bustle.

The menu has a wide array of options, sure to please even the fussiest eater.  For a quick bite to eat you can sit at the bar and order classics like fish and chip, mini pizzas, and chicken wings, or you can be a little more experimental and Ćevapčići (a personal Croatian favorite) or truffle fries.  If you are looking for a sit down meal with friends there is an extensive lunch and dinner menu.  There is a large selection of seafood (once again referencing the nautical presence in Croatian culture) as well as many other meat, poultry, and pasta options.

Thanks to my friends sharing a little from their plates I was able to try a number of things from their menu.  While everything was good there were a few things that stuck out as a must try for any new comer.  Growing up in an Italian family pasta fagioli soup has always been one of my favorites.  Croatian food in many ways mirrors Italian cuisine (Croatia is in close proximity and was at one point under the Roman Empire).  Though pasta fagioli soup is often thought of as an Italian dish this restaurant served it with the tasty Croatian addition of barley along with the pasta (I was told Croatian's peasant roots mean nothing is wasted so it is not uncommon to find a wide array of ingredients in Croatia dishes).  Along with the soup, the stuffed cabbage was the best I have ever tried ( and I am not a big cabbage fan).  And for those of you who are fans of Goulask (also a peasant dish) you must try Veslo's.  It comes over homemade gnocchi and it is out of this world.  We were lucky enough to met the woman who was making each and every piece by hand, adding to the authentic feel of the meal.  My phone died so unfortunately I do not have pictures of the food, but I hope you enjoy the pictures of the decor.

I had a great time at Veslo, enjoying the decor, the staff, the food, and the company.  I would recommend if you ever find yourself in Astoria, Queens that you stop in (32-11 Broadway Astoria, NY 11106) and enjoy a taste of Croatia.