Gastro Tour of Zadar’s Advent Huts | Part 2

Our tour continued to Trg Pet Bunara, to a hut with a very special owner. Loud and “bossy” – he’s the one in charge at the “Lio Land” hut.

“Since our Pomeranian, Lio, kept running around us while we were preparing and decorating the hut, he became our boss and mascot,” said Gabrijel. “Filip and I are good friends, so we decided to take part in Advent together. This is our first year here, and we have big expectations.” Filip pre-pared for us the “Lio Hamburger” with beef, cheese, and pancetta, featuring a special “Lio” sauce, as well as homemade blood sausage with his signature stew and fried onions.

“Our drink offer is diverse, enriched with warm cocktails that have already become our trademark. We mostly hope to have fun, for the weather to stay on our side, and hopefully, everything else will fall into place too,” added Filip.

After a warm goodbye to little Lio, we continued our walk to the “Red Fox” hut, where the menu focuses on burgers, sausages, and other classic festive dishes. It’s the result of six years of Advent experience—enough time for chef Vinko to craft the perfect menu based on his guests’ favorite dishes.

“I love the excitement, adrenaline, and hustle of Advent. It pushes us to be quick and creative in the kitchen. Guests keep coming back because we’ve experimented with new dishes over the years until we found that perfect combination that, hopefully, attracts many to our hut,” said Vinko. He’s es-pecially proud of his spiced mulled gin and the three-meat burger with cracklings. For those with adventurous palates, he prepares tripe on weekends and cod for Christmas Eve.

The kingdom of carbohydrates can be found at the hut named “Spuds – Hot Loaded and Ready”, serving five hearty combinations: chili con carne, pulled pork, sausage with cabbage, octopus salad, and chicken in sauce.

“The potatoes are baked in their peel, rich and filling, so guests get a complete meal to their liking,” explained Zlatko, adding that this is the first time Zadar’s Advent features this kind of dish.

One of the most visually appealing huts is certainly “Picnic”, a regular at Zadar Christmas Market, once again delighting visitors with its festive favorites. Along with their “Sausage Around the World”, which takes you from Asia and South America to Scandinavia, they’ve teamed up with “Boogie Lab” to create a complete dish - perfect from bread to meat.

“We’ve been part of Advent since 2017. We’ve tried to bring dishes from different regions closer to our guests, taking them on a journey around the world. This year, we’ve created a special story around open fire, where we prepare our pastrami sandwich - dry-cured and smoked beef brisket with braised sauerkraut, two cheeses, and smoked mayo on sourdough bread. Over the fire, we also make dry-aged steaks from Biloglav Butchery, served with a chickpea, tahini, and miso cream and chimichurri mayo,” summarized Vedran. Each year, besides introducing new dishes, they also de-sign a new visual identity for their hut, which has become one of their trademarks.

“Ho - Ho House” offers several festive burgers, cocktails, and traditional fritters.

“A rich burger with beef, egg, lamb’s lettuce, caramelized onions, and almond sauce is one of our favorites. This is our first year at Zadar’s Advent and there’s plenty of work and creativity in such a small space. I’ve been in hospitality industry for years, and I wanted to test my ideas and visions with the Advent crowd to see what could be developed into new business ventures,” said Roko.

The team from “Cheers on Wheels” swapped their little food truck for an Advent hut. Their sand-wich and cocktail bar features a variety of global flavors.

“The entire menu is designed as a trip around the world—from bao buns to burritos and ciabatta, all the way to our traditional pork hock. We love experimenting with cocktails, using Croatian prod-ucts, and we’re not afraid to make both hot and cold versions,” said Lucija. 

Finally, the charming “žić.Bo” hut impressed us not only with its food but also with its décor, which sets it apart from others at Advent. They even designed a small “photo booth” that is sure to become this year’s “it” spot for festive photos.

“We offer three types of burgers, fries, and sandwiches, plus four cocktails. Behind the scenes, we’ve also prepared an additional program that we’ll gradually reveal on our social media. Those who love good food and wine can look forward to guest appearances by renowned Zadar and Croa-tian chefs and sommeliers, who will create special dishes and wine pairings for our visitors,” con-cluded Blaž.