Sofia, Bulgaria

A Sofia mehana under the linden trees of the Lozenets neighbourhood, opened in 1926 as the Select Pub and renamed Pod Lipite — 'Under the Linden Trees' — by the Bulgarian writer Elin Pelin, whose name now sits on the street outside the door. The dining rooms run in the classic Bulgarian tavern style: low wooden ceilings, patterned kilim rugs on the floor, copper coffee pots and shepherd's flutes nailed to the wall. The kitchen sources from the restaurant's own farm: the lukanka platter on the meze list is sliced thin from house-cured sausages cellared on the property, alongside soudzhouk, sirene cheese, kyopoolu, lutenitsa, and round loaves baked in the wood oven. The historic guestbook lists writers Angel Karaliychev, Sirak Skitnik, and the actress Elena Snejina among century-long regulars.