We love food — researching it, growing it, preparing it and sharing it with our guests. Bolara 60 is a place for fellow food-lovers, where you can enjoy good food, good drink and good company.
When the main house is open we offer generous breakfasts every morning, three-course dinners on Wednesday and Saturday evenings, and drinks and snack boards on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings. Guests are welcome to explore our vegetable garden (perhaps lend a hand!), and to help us with some of our culinary projects, such as making preserves. Our cooking classes are available for those staying at least a week. And we are situated close to some excellent restaurants, wineries, olive oil producers and truffle hunters, and can point you in the right direction!
Food in Istria
One of the main reasons we chose to live and work in Istria is the food: the exceptional quality of local produce, the persistence of traditional cooking, preserving, and artisan production techniques, and the intriguing mix of Italian, Austrian and Slavic influences due to the Istrian peninsula’s complex history.
Istria is known in particular for its black and white truffles, award-winning extra virgin olive oils, and wines, particularly from the red teran, white malvazija and sweet muscat grapes. Istria also boasts exceptionally high-quality fruit and vegetables at farmers’ markets, locally reared meat and hunted game (if you know who to ask…), fresh and diverse fish and seafood, and much to find in the forest beyond truffles, including wild asparagus, wild garlic, mushrooms and juniper to flavour your wild boar stew.
Istria is also home to several talented charcuterie, cheese, pasta, honey and liqueur producers, among other crafts. And cooking with fire is still common in traditional-style restaurants and for special occasions – think squid charred on the grill, suckling pig on the spit, meat baked under coals in the open hearth, lamb roasted in the wood-fired oven. Moreover, Istria boasts what must be a record number of food and wine festivals.
Our food
Inspired by Istria’s abundance
The farmers, producers, chefs and foragers of Istria have welcomed us with open arms, sharing their techniques and inspiring Anna’s cooking at Bolara 60. Her kitchen celebrates the abundance of Isrtria’s gardens and coast: rustic, vegetable-forward dishes rooted in Mediterranean traditions, where everything from crusty bread and fruit preserves to fresh pasta, sausages, pickles, aperitifs and liqueurs is crafted by hand. We cook with ingredients we trust: vegetables from our own garden, eggs from our hens, and the finest seasonal produce from nearby farms.
Breakfasts
We love a good breakfast. If you’re staying in the Kuća (main house), you’re warmly invited to join us for our communal breakfast at 9 am. It’s a lovely way to start the day, gathered around tables together. We set out pots of freshly brewed coffee, homemade granola and yoghurt, our own sourdough bread and homemade jams. There’s always beautiful seasonal fruit, and each day we prepare one special dish, perhaps eggs from our chickens, scrambled with foraged wild asparagus, poached in a rich shakshuka, or fried sunny-side-up over spicy borlotti beans. Other mornings might bring ripe tomatoes on toast, drizzled with Bolara olive oil and torn basil, or a zingy homegrown courgette carpaccio scattered with rocket and fresh lemon. Staying in the Kućica? You’re welcome to join us for breakfast, too, when the main house is open. Just let us know at least two days in advance, and we’ll set a place for you at the table.
Dinners
From early summer through autumn, when the main house is open, we host social dinners on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. We begin with aperitifs at 7:30 pm, then gather around a communal table on the terrace under the stars, or inside the “konoba” at our long oak table. It’s a relaxed, convivial evening with three courses of honest, seasonal cooking, paired with local wines, and finished with fresh herb tea and liqueurs. We ask that you book at least two days in advance so we can plan and prepare thoughtfully. Our food is often mostly vegetarian anyway (we love cooking with vegetables!), so vegetarian guests are always well looked after. If you have other dietary requirements, please do talk to us early on and we’ll do our very best, though we can’t always accommodate every request.
Snack boards
On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, we offer snack boards, perfect if you’ve already indulged in a big lunch, or you’d simply rather stay close to home than drive out to a restaurant. Settle in with a light meal and good drinks wherever feels right: at the table under the walnut tree, on one of the terraces or by the big fireplace inside. Our snack boards are a generous spread of homemade sourdough crackers, our own dips, pickles and olives, roasted nuts, and beautifully produced local cheeses and charcuterie. One board is enough for a light meal for two, or order one each if you’re hungry!
Drinks
We love good drinks as much as good food, and we think the two go rather beautifully together. Each year, we handpick our favourite wines from local producers for our wine list, including Istria’s celebrated malvazija and teran, alongside a thoughtful selection of other styles and some truly excellent sparkling wines. We also offer a short but special list of our favourite cocktails and aperitifs, including our much-loved homemade fig leaf wine and, of course, a perfectly made Campari or Aperol Spritz, ideal for those balmy summer evenings when you’re soaking up the view from the garden. Someone will be on hand to pour you a drink every evening from 6 pm onwards.
Culinary activities
Once or twice a week, we roll up our sleeves and spend an afternoon making the things we need – our sourdough bread, crackers, dips, granola, jams and liqueurs, or turning garden gluts into pantry preserves. If time and space allow, you’re more than welcome to join in and lend a hand. It’s a lovely way to spend a few hours, and you might learn something new along the way. For guests staying a week or longer, we’re also happy to organize a proper cooking class that ends in a shared lunch or dinner. We especially love making fresh pasta, hearty seasonal salads and beautiful desserts that celebrate whatever’s ripe and ready. If you’d like to join us for any culinary activities, just let us know in advance and we’ll see what we can arrange.
More fresh dishes made in our kitchen
