If there is an only-in-St. Louis restaurant success story, it’s the one about Balkan Treat Box, an operation that started as a food truck and now includes the truck, a restaurant, and one of the most popular concession stands at CityPark.
Co-owner Loryn Nalic, who founded the company with her husband Edo, fell in love with the food Edo’s Bosnian family cooked. A trained chef, she spent several months traveling around her husband’s family’s region in that country “cooking as much of their food I could cook.”
Upon her return in 2016, she and Edo started up the truck and “hit the streets,” with the complicated task of explaining what kind of food they were offering.
“It was difficult to tell people what Balkan food was,” said Nalic, whose food looks delicious but has names that are somewhat incomprehensible, like titles of Ikea furniture. Cevapi, for instance, is the name of an offering which includes “grilled Beef Sausages in Somun, Kajmak, onion, side of cabbage salad.”
But Balkan Treat Box had a couple things in its favor: The food was delicious, and the fact that St. Louis has a large Bosnian emigrant population meant that there was a starter audience who helped spread the word. Soon after, local and national food publications took notice, and Balkan Treat Box became, Nalic said, “a national phenomenon,” with positive mentions in publications including Food + Wine, Zagat, Eater, and many local publications.
When CityPark did a local poll asking which restaurants people wanted in the stadium, Balkan Treat Box was one of the two top vote-getters, according to St. Louis City SC’s chief experience officer Matt Sebek.
The challenge of the online order-ahead app
While Nalic is excited to be part of the stadium’s food operations, she said it also has presented her crew with a new slate of challenges. First is having to cook on electric grills, a change since even in the truck Balkan Treat Box uses wood-fire ovens. Second is dealing with the team’s order-ahead app, which Nalic said creates a much different interaction between restaurant and customer.
“Online [ordering] is tough because you can’t control the pace,” Nalic said. “If you’re in the truck you are face to face, you can control the line in front of you, and you can see when things are off and you can talk to people. For online, you need to be ready to serve right away.”
One way to cope, Nalic said, was to reduce the number of items available at the stadium stand. Right now, Balkan Treat Box only offers one main item (at the recent game it was a beef or vegan kebab wrap) plus an option for “loaded” fries, which are french fries topped with beef bacon, sauces, feta cheese and green onions.
“You have to be smart about it, you don’t want to fall on your face,” Nalic said.
At the game we attended, the Balkan Treat Box stand had a full walk-up line immediately after fans were let in the stadium, and the order-ahead pickup screen was full of orders ready to be picked up.
“The volume is unlike anything we’ve ever done in a food truck,” Nalic said.
While Nalic said the stand “has meetings every week” with the stadium team on how to improve operations, she said customers feel good about having both options.
“It’s a cool app, and customers like the new way to order,” Nalic said. “We’re all learning together on the best ways to go.”
For staffing, Nalic’s standalone restuarant in St. Louis is only open for lunch, allowing her to use restaurant staff for games, which are mostly at night.
“All the owners [of the individual stands] all want to be there [at the stadium], and we’re all there, every game,” Nalic said. “People are excited to see you, and that’s contagious.”
And like Farmtruk, Nalic said the returns are also favorable.
“The volume is good, the pay is good — it’s a successful venture,” Nalic said.
Next: Part 6: Provider close-up: Anthonino’s Taverna
Editor’s note: This post is one part of our seven-part report on the concessions operations at St. Louis City SC’s CityPark. To go to the start of the report, click this link. You can also download a PDF of the full report, with more photos.
