Even on a Monday, the Balkan Treat Box in Webster Groves is busy.

But it's no surprise, considering one of the owners is this year's best chef in the Midwest.

And the winner is Loryn Nalic from Balkan Treat Box.

A James Beard Award is one of the highest honors a chef can earn.

Loryn Nalic of the Balkan Treat Box and Telva at the Ridge is the first St.

Louis chef to win this category in nine years.

No, it was shocking.

It's a huge deal to be, have a cuisine recognized at that level.

Her journey to become one of St.

Louis' most well-known chefs is a love story.

Edo Nalic, Co-Owner, Baker, Loryn 's Husband, "It was 2006.

I was working at the Bosnian restaurant at the Bevo Mill neighborhood.

That's where the largest Bosnian concentration was.

And she was working for the Cisco food service.

She was selling on the restaurant.

That's how we met."

That's Edo Nalic, co-owner, baker, and Loryn 's husband.

He was born in Bosnia and helped introduce Loryn to Balkan food.

"Food is comfort.

He was missing a lot of that at the time that we met and I took an interest in learning some things just to be able to kind of make him comfortable and happy and as I got into it I started cooking with his family and he let me know if it was good or not.

She made me very happy.

Edo came to the U.S.

in 2001.

He and his brother Emir were only children when the Bosnian War began in 1992.

He says their hometown became dangerous early on in the war.

We all just woke up one day and fled.

We ended up in Slovenia and then in Germany.

But after a few months and, you know, living in different sheds and basements and, you know, you kind of realize, well, there's no stopping to this, unfortunately, you know.

And then you hear some of your neighbors got killed, your friends.

Yeah, very traumatic.

Emir is also a co-owner of the restaurants.

In 2021, he came to St.

Louis, which has the largest Bosnian population outside of his home country.

This is home now.

I think a huge part of that is having these restaurants where you get to tell your story and you get to invite people in and show them what you do.

Around 2012, Loryn and Edo began discussing opening a food truck with Balkan Cuisine.

You know, I'm coming up with like a menu and he was like shaking his head from across the table and I'm going like, what?

And he was like, you don't know.

Like you have to go there and experience it for yourself.

And I have said I've never I'd never left the country before and I thought he was crazy.

But it ended up being and continues.

- I knew she was crazy enough to do it.

(laughing) - In 2013, Loryn went to stay with Edo's family in Bosnia and Herzegovina on her own for about a month.

- We had been married at that point for like six years, but I had never met his parents.

And so like flew into Bosnia and like met them for the first time, you know, kind of immersed myself in as much as I could.

- Traveling with Edo's brother, Emir, Loryn spent weeks learning from home cooks, bakers, and restaurant owners all over the Balkans.

When she returned to St.

Louis, she began developing a menu, but says the most important thing she brought home wasn't a recipe.

It was Bosnian hospitality.

- There was a level of hospitality within a community and a culture that I had never experienced before.

And it helped me to understand, you know, what needed to happen within the four walls of whatever we were opening, whether that was a truck or a restaurant.

It was important that that was something that people felt 'cause it was so overwhelmingly beautiful.

- The Balkan Treat Box Food Truck opened in 2017 and the restaurant in Webster Groves in 2019.

Both serve Balkan food staples with Loryn 's spin on them.

The menu features items like pide, lahmacun, and cevapi.

Most items are also served on somun, a traditional wood-fired flatbread with roots in Sarajevo, dating back centuries.

Staying true to the bread's origins, the restaurant bakes its salmon in a wood-burning oven, both at the Balkan Treat Box restaurant and even in the food truck.

- And, you know, there was some backlash from friends and people in the industry being like, "Why?

You know, you can have it easier."

But Loryn was very determined that, you know, we do it right if we're gonna do it.

The Nalic's restaurants have seen major growth over the last several years.

In 2022, Balkan Treat Box was added as a vendor in Energizer Park.

Their most recent venture is Telva at the Ridge, which serves Balkan-inspired coffee and brunch.

It's in the same building as Rolling Ridge Nursery and opened in 2023.

When we opened Balkan, I really thought we would be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It really proved that that was not possible.

There was this whole other part of like the experience that we could offer here that we can't do at Balkan and coffee culture is huge in Bosnia and it's it slows you down a little bit.

You know, I always say Balkan's a party and this place is like more zen chill.

Recognition from national media outlets like Food and Wine and Bon Appetit followed the restaurant's success and spread the word about her cuisine even more.

Loryn has also been nominated several times for James Beard Awards and this June she was named the Best Chef in the Midwest.

When her name came up as winner I blacked out for five seconds or something.

We were jumping and hugging and then I remember like all of us, I'm getting goosebumps right now, walking to that stage like such an amount of pride and happiness and you know it's like it feels like all the hard work that everyone's putting in that's payoff.

That thing was not coming off my neck for like a long time.

She wore the medal everywhere.

Everywhere, I took it with me everywhere.

It was like because I can, like why not?

Loryn 's win came around the same time that Bosnia captured international attention in the 2026 World Cup.

So she says the honor felt especially meaningful.

And it was like amazing for me of course to hear like how proud they were and to have that alongside with the all eyes on Bosnia at the time like it felt really good.

It was really a lot of fun.

Many people visit Balkan Treat Box for its award winning food.

But the restaurant is also part of a larger St.

Louis story.

The Bosnian community has become an integral part of this region's identity.

And for many, Nalic's success is a source of pride that extends far beyond the menu.

I think it's a pretty big deal for St.

Louis in general.

I always thought she deserves it, so now you have the stamp of approval, I think.

I like to make people happy with food.

I think it's one of the great joys of my life.