Pizzeria Parma

After a long time, I met with Danijela and Nina in Pizzeria Parma. This place is an institution and not just another pizza place. This is the oldest stil operational Pizzeria in Ljubljana, Slovenia, ex-Yugoslavia and even SouthEast Europe (KORA bar in 1973, Pod Lipo 1973, Konditor 1976 but all are closed now, in Slovenia Museum in Koper 1971 and Napa in Izola 1972). It opened its door back on 18th of April 1974 at the south end of Maxi passage by hotel Ilirija. In more then half a century many owners changed (Parma was closed for 18 months in early 2000’s). Last two decades Jure Kadunc is the owner here. Here you can sit on a bar stool or at a few tables inside where you can see original electric owen. On the opposite side of the stairs, there is a garden. In the beginning, was popular as a new thing in town, later it was place for students and today is a place of nostalgia.

The pizza there is old school, small – 22 cm in diameter (owen limitation), with thick dough and a lot of toppings. Far away from what would we consider today as good pizza. They still use the old electric oven Akrilux Cerovac Koper there and the pizza is inside for 4,5 minutes. If you check the menu here are names with connotations like Tito, Tomos 4, i. cankar, stm, rc elan, veliki oder, edvard, ios, f. prešeren, g. verdi. The typical order would be Ilirija z (cheese, ham, mushrooms with egg). The mandatory drink is blueberry soda from the machine, which is way too sweet.

To return to our last visit. I had Mexico 68/86. memento to Olimpic games and World cup (mozzarella, turkey ham, fresh paprika, corn, nacho cheese, hot peppers), and girls had Ios (mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, bocconcini mozzarella, Genovese pesto, virgin olive oil, pine nuts) – it was a bit too crunchy and there was an abundance of pine nuts. Even small in size it was enough, with a taste of memories. The bill for all was 30 €.