In Brseč, a village of just over 100 off-season residents clinging to the slopes of Učka Mountain above the Kvarner coast, one small shop has quietly outlasted three decades of retail upheaval. Suzi Sirotnjak's mini-market — the local "butiga" — turned 30 this year, and it remains the beating heart of village life.
Step inside and you get a masterclass in old-school service. Suzi answers the phone in German for Austrian holiday-home owners, halves a loaf for a regular who only wants a bit of bread, and keeps a file listing the ingredients of every product from the local Radnik bakery so customers can quiz her on sourcing. She stocks beloved Croatian brands — Gavrilović cured meats, Podravka gherkins, Dorina chocolate, Ledo ice cream — alongside everything from superglue to drain cleaner, and prices that don't sting compared to the big chains. Her trilingual charm (English, German and Italian) means a steady stream of tourists, restorers and even politicians, including Zoran Milanović before his first stint as prime minister, pass through her door.
The shop doubles as the village square. Suzi installed a coffee dispenser 20 years ago when Brseč had no cafés, and locals still gather around it for their morning fix long after the summer cafés close. Workers swing by for "marenda", the traditional mid-morning worker's breakfast — rolls with mortadella is a favourite — and Suzi laughs that she's something of a local psychologist, trusted with everyone's stories.
The anniversary paper chain above her counter also marks a changing of the guard. When Suzi opened with her sister in 1996, the wider Mošćenička Draga municipality had a dozen or so family-run shops; now there are just three. Discount chains and young people leaving for cities have hollowed out rural retail across Croatia. Suzi's response has been to out-service the supermarkets: curating the best of 10-15 competing brands per product instead of two or three, and knowing every ingredient on her shelves.
For travellers, this is a lovely reason to detour off the coastal road. Brseč is a picturesque stone village popular with climbers and beach-goers, and buying coffee, ice cream and bread at Suzi's — then eating it on a sea-view bench — is the kind of experience no supermarket run can replicate. She usually closes for winter, though a warm autumn might keep the doors open longer this year.
Story via Croatia Week.
