40 WORLD’S BEST RESTAURANTS SEPTEMBER 2019
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Spelt sour bread and
cultured butter with
bee pollen (center)
surrounded by other
small bites.
Chef Ana Roš
and her dog,
Prince.
hills! The snowcapped mountains!
Even so, as soon as I stepped through
the doors of Hiša Franko, I understood
that it was going to more than do
justice to its breathtaking setting. In
the years since they’ve taken over the
family business, Roš and her husband,
Valter Kramar, have put Slovenia on the
world map as a culinary destination,
using their restaurant to highlight the
bounty of the Soča Valley.
As you step through the doors,
convivial staff welcome you to the 19th-
century building (which also serves as
an inn and the home of the chef and
her family), offering, if your table’s not
yet ready, a glass of Slovenian sparkling
wine with the tiny bubbles and crisp
finish of a very good Champagne. Once
you’re ushered in to the warm, red-
walled dining room, the party starts
in earnest. Wine begins to flow, and a
series of small bites lands on your table:
a tiny salad of chickweed and green
peas sitting atop an airy green cracker
smeared with smoked bone marrow; a
taco made from kale, with elderflowers
and hazelnut miso; a piping hot savory
doughnut with a filling of intensely
delicious lambs’ brains.
When the butter for your spelt-and-
whey sour bread arrives, it is covered in PHOTOGRAPHY: CEDRIC ANGELES
