Legend has it… it was a fine, sunny day when we decided to give our dear guests, the bloggers from Zagreb, a small surprise and take them to one of the most fabulous places in Novi Sad – the patisserie-cafe “Vremeplov”.
At first glance, our guests were delighted, because the exterior itself creates the impression that we are in a garden in the Vienna court. Our hosts were the owners, Nemanja Kovačić and his wife Jasmina, who offered us a ‘cream’ coffee, considering it a good start of our meeting. Indeed, this was the best and certainly the most romantic start to the day.
Our guests wanted to know everything about “Vremeplov” right away, and even though we were already familiar with the space and concept of this old and famous Novi Sad pastry shop, we were no less eager and curious to hear it all over again.
When we entered the patisserie, we had the impression that we had stepped into a fairy tale. We were turning around, noticing that a wisteria grows from the roof, the garden is adorned with datura, and the garden itself is decorated with lemon, tangerine and orange trees that add to the exotic feel of the place, and there is a handmade greenhouse as well. On the wall is a picture of Mary Poppins, then a National cash register from New York, a sailboat from Columbia, an old iron, a piano, a violin, a trombone, a harmonium, an old telephone exchange. All of these antiques justify the name of the pastry shop, as they really do take you on a journey through time.
The owner Nemanja told us that he actually wanted to open a car salon first, but was talked out of this idea by his neighbour who said that this neighbourhood deserved a good patisserie-café, and not really a car salon. And so “Vremeplov” came into being, completely spontaneously. Although the meaning of this word actually means ‘given from God,’ perhaps the creation of a the café was not a coincidence at all.
This name was given to the café because the space has a lot of antiquity and artefacts that have been collected all over the world, but there is also family property, such as the old closet which is Jasmina grandmother’s dowry. There is a lot of everythere there. Coffee is brought from all over the world (Tanzania, Kenya, the Mediterranean, Greece), so the pastry shop offers as many as 240 coffee sorts, and they have built their own brand of espresso called, of course, the “Vremeplov”. In addition to cabinets with various antiques, the one with things of particular value is certainly a cebinet with cakes – a slice of immortal cake, Duchess’s cake, Parisian and Novi Sad breakfast, and what stands out is the Mira Banjac cake. The cake was made for Mira’s 80th birthday, when it was premierly served at the Serbian National Theatre. She was 80 – the cake weighed 80 kilograms and was 80 cm in diameter. When asked what the recipe for Mira Banjac is, Jasmina answered: “Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate”. Truly divine, creamy taste, with a richness of chocolate magic with just a little refreshing orange, is something that certainly does not take us to the past, but keeps us in the present and pauses in the moment. Such a taste cannot be resisted, and we will certainly return to try it from time to time.
The Mira Banjac cake is formally protected as a Novi Sad sweet product, it certainly deserves it, just as our legendary actress deserved to have a cake named after her. On this occasion, we warmly recommend and invite all Novi Sad residents, as well as friends and guests of our town to try the cake – if you have the sweet tooth and are also a chocolate lover, then we can confidently claim that you will enjoy this piece of cake as well as the ambience in which you will comfortably taste it. …
Authors: Dunja Knežević i Jelena Farkić
