Chef Loryn Nalic and her husband Edo are the owners of Balkan Treat Box, where they serve Balkan-inspired cuisine straight from the heart of St. Louis, Missouri. Balkan Treat Box began in 2017 as a colorful food truck, complete with a wood-fired oven, offering authentic street food-style dishes inspired by the elaborate cuisine of Southeastern Europe. Balkan Treat Box, the brick-and-mortar restaurant, opened in 2019 in St. Louis. Loryn began her career in hospitality working at Companion Bakery in St. Louis, learning the art of pastry. She progressed while overseeing pastry and bread service at the lauded local restaurants Luciano’s Trattoria and Tavern 43 and later moved on to oversee special events for the venerable Pappy’s Smokehouse. She became interested in cooking authentic Balkan recipes when she met Edo, a Bosnian refugee who emigrated to St. Louis after the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. To recreate the classic Balkan recipes, Loryn traveled around the region learning age-old culinary traditions from locals. While travelling through each city center, she was also inspired by the varying forms of finger food sold on the streets, which later became the concept for their restaurant. Awards the couple has received include Food & Wine’s Best Bites of the Year, St. Louis Business Journal’s Best Food Trucks, Feast Magazine’s Best Savory Food Truck and Best New Restaurant, St. Louis Magazine’s A List Awards Best Food Truck, Ian Froeb’s 100 Best St. Louis Restaurants, St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Best New Restaurants,  and Sauce Magazine’s Best New Restaurant and Best New Restaurant People’s Choice. (Webster Groves, MO) @balkantreatbox