It all started when I misunderstood where the Uber app wanted us to stand to catch our ride.  We finally turned ourselves around, and the driver identified us as his likely missing tourists, and we connected.  That opened some communication between us during the ride, as he pretended to have rescued us.  After the usual back and forth about whether he grew up in Split, how the city has changed, and what additional jobs he had, he offered a restaurant suggestion.  I apparently wasn’t repeating it back to him correctly as I tried to search for it on my phone, to the point where he almost pulled over to write it down for us.  But again, we soon were on the same page.

First attempt:

On Saturday evening, we headed to Old Town and strolled over to Konoba Fetivi.  

It was a little tucked away which is usually a good sign.  There wasn’t a poster with pictures of food, and there wasn’t a hostess outside trying to invite us in.  It was off the tourist path.  

Some staff were casually sitting outside.  It was 18:30.  A peek inside suggested it was empty.  We smiled and asked if we could have dinner.  They asked if we had a reservation.  This was a surprise as I had failed to find a website or any online way to make a reservation so I (incorrectly) assumed that they didn’t do reservations.  At an empty restaurant, we were being turned away.  This made us even more determined so we inquired as to how we could make a reservation, for another time.

At this we were invited inside as the head waiter consulted a book.  A real, paper book.  He took our reservation for dinner on Tuesday night by writing it in the book.  Old Town, Old School.

Second attempt:

On Tuesday evening, we headed to Old Town and strolled over to Konoba Fetivi.  

No one was outside.  The door was closed.

The door though was unlocked.  We cautiously entered and walked over to a young woman near ‘the book’.  We announced ourselves as the 19:30 reservation for Ann (which may have been written as Anna?)

She had an odd expression.  I was thinking, “I know my name is there!”  She did not consult the book.  She launched into apologies.  

Earlier that day, the nearby street construction team accidentally hit the water line.  We had seen some activity around pipes and the scene started to make sense.  She could not accommodate us for dinner as they couldn’t cook or clean dishes or operate the restrooms.

She took our reservation for lunch on Thursday by writing it in the book.

And then we asked for a recommendation on where to go for dinner that night.

Detour:

On Tuesday evening, we strolled through some side streets of Split to Konoba Otprilike Ovako.

There seemed to be no reason to walk that street, but as our new friend instructed, we looked for the bench outside.  This indeed signaled a restaurant.  We happily walked in and asked if we could have dinner.

There was some definite hesitation, so we slipped in the fact that we had a reservation at Fetivi and she nodded, somehow already knowing of their water issue.  She consulted her book (so apparently it’s a common thing here) and after an expression that seemed like mental math, she offered us a table and removed the ‘reserved’ place card.

We had a lovely meal of fresh fish and family vineyard wine, followed by a very drunken fig.  We also had a nice chat with the older British couple at the table next to us.  They were quite well traveled and yet still jealous of our year ahead.  Fresh on our minds was whether we would stay with the group flight to Cape Town at the end of December or deviate somewhere else for a few days en route.  A deadline for that decision was approaching.  So we asked if they had recommendations for Africa – acknowledging that it is a very large place.  And they had fantastic recommendations!  You never know how dinner neighbours will surprise you!

Third attempt:

On Thursday afternoon, we headed to Old Town and strolled over to Konoba Fetivi.  

The street was a mess but starting to show signs of the final design.  The door to the restaurant was open.

We were greeted with a ‘welcome back!’ and taken to a hidden outdoor patio.  The weather was comfortable, we were intrigued by the decorations, and we had no other plans for the day.  We settled ourselves in.

We tried to order wine, but the head waiter insisted we had to order the fish first.  And he literally brought out a platter of fresh fish!  We ordered the ‘fish for two’ combo platter, and an appetizer of chick pea and octopus stew.  That one definitely fell in the category of ‘we need to order this because it’s something I certainly don’t make at home.’  It was so tasty that we asked for the recipe.  He said he would think about it….which meant that we found multiple times through the rest of the meal to repeat our request given we hadn’t yet heard ‘no’.  Perhaps because we were enjoying the afternoon at a true Croatian pace, perhaps because we wore them down, eventually we received a piece of paper with ingredients.  Only ingredients.  That was all the chef would do, but he encouraged us to experiment and come back some day to tell them about it.

Ironically, early into our lunch, we were alerted that the street construction crew did an unplanned water shutoff.  Could we please refrain from using the restrooms unless absolutely necessary?  Had we arrived later we may have been turned away, again!

I was not aware of when the water returned as it had no impact on us.  At some point, the family next to us left, and two other people sat down.  We answered their questions about what we ordered, and where we were from, and we had some general banter.  Eventually they announced that they had an appointment at 3pm and needed to get going, but they still had wine left…..so we further extended our lunch to assist with this problem.   You never know how lunch neighbours will surprise you!

To sum up:

Persistence = amazing fresh fish, one recipe, bonus wine, targeted travel recommendations, and great memories of Split.

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