MONROVIA – Old Town Monrovia has become a dash more international with the opening of a European-style restaurant that offers “a touch of Croatia.”
Dragica Grabovac, an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia, spent years entertaining for her husband Bosko’s business guests, who came from around the world.
Now that Bosko is deceased and their two children are older, the 56-year-old Arcadia resident fulfilled a dream earlier this year when she opened the trendy Cafe LuMar on 136 E. Colorado Boulevard
“This was always in the back of my mind that I wanted this one day,” Grabovac, a former housewife and avid volunteer, said. “It’s going quite well for a new business. We have returning customers and good (online) reviews … We’re trying to introduce some different dishes and some Croatian items.”
The restaurant, which opened in January, is named for her two teenage children Lucia and Mario. It’s now open every night for dinner and for Sunday brunch. Their menu includes sweet and savory crepes and a variety of paninis, such as chicken pesto and roasted pork with red peppers and spinach.
Cafe LuMar already serves goulash, a savory beef stew originally from Hungary, and will soon be adding their popular Croatian specials of stuffed cabbage with ground meat and rice, lamb shanks and chicken stew to its regular dinner menu.
“Croatia has been under the influence of so many different countries and invaded by so many throughout the centuries that our cuisine is rich,” she said.
Councilman Tom Adams said Monrovia’s Old Town has become more diverse by attracting a variety of ethnic restaurants.
“You get such an interesting mix when you get entrepreneurs opening restaurants instead of chains opening them,” Adams said. “With chains, you get consistency but not a lot of diversity.”
Grabovac hired their chef from the Cordon Bleu and also employed her sister, Visnja Zelenika of Azusa, full-time and another woman part-time. In fact, Grabovac partly opened the restaurant because her sister needed a job. She also wanted her children, ages 16 and 18, to gain some work experience so they could perhaps take over the business one day.
“I don’t know if it’s the right timing in this economy but we’ll see,” she said.
The restaurant also carries close to 200 items imported from Croatia, including cookies, candies, jams, smoked meats, cheeses, wine, teas and coffee.
Three decades ago, Dragica Grabovac fled from the former Yugoslavia to Southern California to escape an abusive boyfriend she believed would take her life.
“I arranged everything from my office where I worked and just disappeared one day,” she said.
She told her parents the night before her flight to the United States. They were devastated to hear the news.
“It was the first time I saw my father cry,” she said.
The kind, older gentleman who greeted her at Los Angeles International Airport was Bosko and the couple soon married. They later adopted Lucia and Mario, two Croatian war orphans, in 1997.
Grabovac says the restaurant is a tribute and a memorial to her late husband, who died a decade ago of complications of pneumonia. Not only did he enjoy good food, wine and good company, she said, but he was also polite, sweet and sensitive.
“He was just different than any other man I met back there in Yugoslavia,” she said.
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