Tavern Menego / Tavern Menego

Tavern Menego

Tavern Menego is suited at ancient part of City of Hvar (called Groda) by the main stairway connecting square and medieval fortress.

We started working in summer of 1999, and tavern lives every year from April 1st till November 1st. House in which the tavern is placed has belonged to my mother's family Karkovic-Trentin. Ruined and abandoned it demanded a great effort to be reconstructed and brought back to life. During reconstruction we found a coin from 14th century in a wall and it speaks enough about antiquity of the house.

Part of the house was used in my family for generations as a wine - cellar, especially to my grandfather Dinko who was known as an excellent wine maker, so people from all over the island were coming to buy his wine. Developing the new way of life, we adapted the wine - cellar for tourist purposes. We named it Menego (from Domenico), in honor of grandfather Dinko (after whom I was named too), because cellar and vineyard meant everything to him. The interior was decorated to keep authenticity and to save traditions and customs of old age. We work dressed in old national garb of Hvar, playing Dalmatian folk music and serving authentic products of Hvar and Dalmatia.

We serve, exclusively, cold Dalmatian specialties, produced at small households by the ancient recipes. Some of them are:

  • Goat cheese (aged in olive oil or fresh), sheep cheese in olive oil from sheepskin, other hard cheeses
  • Different marinades, smoked ham, pork neck, bacon dried on wind and smoke, many kinds of domestic bread.
  • Drunk figs (ancient recipe for aphrodisiac), many kinds of domestic cakes and , of course, everything You can get from wine grapes

Wine (and all other products derived from grapes), vegetables and fruits are grown at my wife's household (family Simunovic, father Dionizije and son Djordje) in Vloka, the only village at island of St. Klement. They are also sold in restaurant Dionis, which is run by family Simunovic.

Hoping that we have managed to resemble atmosphere in our tavern and some of our specialties, we invite You to visit us, if You ever come to Island of Hvar.