The Cult Restaurant Reopens!

The renovated Croatian Culture Club, the Chez Dragec restaurant at the Arts and Crafts Museum, has recently had a gala opening.

Many citizens of Zagreb have eagerly been awaiting the grand reopening of their favorite restaurant. The patrons loved the place for its warm welcome and the exquisite food that was served there for nearly two decades. For a number of years, the restaurant Chez Dragec was run by a well known figure in Zagreb’s world of gastronomy, Drago Vukušić, who has pulled out of the business due to health reasons and has turned over the restaurant to his long-term business partner, Martin Pavić, who has certainly made his mark on the recently refurbished cult restaurant. 

Those who were familiar with the previous décor will probably be very pleasantly surprised with the new interior design authored by the well known Croatian architects, Oleg Hržić and Ante Rašić. The first impression of the newly decorated space is pleasant, comfortable, welcoming and well lit. 

The restaurant has been divided into three separate areas: the VIP lounge, a trattoria and a café. The main attribute of the entire restaurant space is the strategic use of light features that add to its character. 

The café is furnished with brightly colored armchairs; the VIP lounge is decorated in somewhat more subdued nuances of understated elegance – white lights and light green chairs, whereas the trattoria offers an entirely different impression, owing to Tomislav Buntak’s playful drawings on the walls. The décor is not the only thing that distinguishes the three separate areas one from the other. Each of these three distinct restaurant spaces will serve different kinds of food. The VIP lounge will offer the best seafood specialties, including lobster, whereas the trattoria will have nothing but rustic home made cooking on its menu. 

The newly refurbished restaurant has a central reception area from which the restaurant hostess will direct the guests to their tables.