In retrospect, it was an unromantic winter evening in Poprad, a small mountain town of Eastern Czechoslovakia. It was the decade before we could travel freely; it was the moment when I didn’t feel the need to be anywhere else. It was my mother’s kitchen, a tiny room in a communist era, concrete-block apartment building. We were making my mom’s “renowned” rhubarb cake. Few hours into the evening, my mother served desert. She proclaimed in front of about a dozen of her closest friends, that “she couldn’t have made the cake without my help” It was sort of true. It was then I knew, this was what I wanted to do. I was four ears old and the cake was a great success, with a side of home made whip cream, topped with wild lingonberry preserves, my grandma had made earlier that year from the fruit me and my sister picked. I realize the potential for the aforementioned anecdote to come across as clichéd and premeditated. The truth is, though, that the feeling of experiencing great pleasure from the simple offering of well prepared food stayed with me for years to come. While working as a seu chef in restaurants in Germany, Austria and Czech Republic, returning home, to Slovakia to run a resort and a 3-star kitchen in the High Tatra Mountains, through coming to New York, graduating from the New York Cullinary Institute and then receiving real education on the streets of Lower East Side and Greenpoint to Upper West Side and Soho ­ the dream of learning, formulating and passing along the fruits of unpredictably unique, unpretentious and simply wonderful Central European fare stayed with me. After a purely coincidental reunion with my Grammar school friend Otto, who sat next to me in 2nd grade, back in Europe, I found the supportive, creative and highly focused force behind making Eurotrip a reality. Otto, now father of our 3 children with whom we live in Park Slope, was an accomplished interior designer and artist with a passion for micro-brewed beers, non-mainstream dry wines and farm style cooking. (Check out his use of recycled metals in the interior of our dining and bar areas, and please, say hallo ­ he’s usually around…the bar area :). We set out to build a restaurant from scratch, a space that though suggestive of our origins, would transcend the narrow reputation of German, Austrian, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak cooking. We wanted to create a space evoking a sense of community and humble values. We wanted the beer to be served correctly, using clean equipment and the right proportion of gasses. We wanted the restaurant to be close to our home, so we could be there, stay involved and make it an extension of our daily experiences in this vibrant neighborhood. We wanted to make Eurotrip a place where you can have a drink after work, bring your kids in for a healthy bunch on a Sunday afternoon or have a romantic evening with someone special, while being unobtrusively entertained by what you’re eating and drinking. Interesting, savory, nicely-textured, healthy and irresistible entrées that are relevant to today's dining culture of our community, while respecting their respective culinary origins can be found here. The rhubarb cake is on our dessert menu. Yours, Maria Zizak executive chef, co-owner