Stelean Srebrov, known behind the decks as Steleansky, is a Sofia-based DJ. Originally from Shumen, he started in 2016 when one too many home parties had dissolved into arguments over the aux. He worked as a busboy to save toward his first laptop, then asked his dad to cover the rest. Told him it was for schoolwork, not mixing. He now plays across Bulgaria and in some of the biggest clubs abroad. A resident at Carrusel Club, he also runs Slow Jamz, one of the city's hottest recurring parties. A real DJ, he still insists, is remembered for the song selection, not the transition.
Stelean has lived minutes away from Ovcha Kupel Park since he moved to Sofia. About as long as he's known StoLitsa Gastro Pub. He found it the ordinary way. Walking past the gelato stand still parked out front, tasting it, coming back a few days later for the food. Four years on, he's still a regular. Mostly for the lunch menu, priced, he says, lower than what shows up on the plate.
Walking in from the park, StoLitsa reads like the standard setup. Grill, a couple of salads, beer on tap. Sitting down undoes that fast.
The bakalia spread came first. Tarama, mukhamara, and katak with buffalo cheese, mopped up with warm homemade bread. The tarama was the standout. Salty and smooth in a way that made the bread necessary rather than optional. The calamari formosa didn't work for me. Chewier than I like, probably a batch that had sat too long. Though the herb aioli on the side cut through the oil well enough. Stelean compared the texture to popcorn, which was spot-on.
The chiy kyufte were Stelean's pick, current favorite on the menu. Lavash holding lentils and bulgur cooked down in tomato sauce, with harissa running through it. The vegetarian “meatballs” were plated cold with a fresh salad, pickled red onion, and a honey mustard dressing. Light enough to work as a summer dish despite the legumes doing most of the structural work.
The pig hearts, ordered by weight, were the surprise. Grilled, tender, with no trace of the sourness Bulgarian offal usually carries. No smell at all. Nobody at the table could have picked heart out of a lineup without being told. The chimichurri alongside did the same job the bakalia's dips had done earlier. The coleslaw on the side was Stelean's recommendation. And by his account, the best in the city. Eating it, that wasn't a hard sell. Sweetened with raisins, carried by mayo without going heavy, cabbage doing the crunch.
Dessert was the homemade biscuit cake, with white chocolate and mascarpone. It tasted close to the biscuit cakes served in my Bulgarian kindergarten, in the best way. The mascarpone and white chocolate were the reason it worked, and by the end it had earned its place with everything else we'd eaten.
The dining room is lined with black-and-white photographs of Sofia before communism, which lines up with what the owner later confirmed was the whole idea behind the place. Stelean had a dog with him, and a waiter brought it a water bowl before either of us had ordered. Service moved fast and stayed warm throughout, including a few minutes one of the waiters spent just talking to us about the dog.
behind the door
Georgi runs the food side at StoLitsa Gastro Pub and co-owns it. He's been at it since 2021. The place was built around one specific idea. Recreate the version of Sofia that existed before communism, when small, single-counter kapancheta served whatever was in season straight out front. The menu runs on Bulgarian cuisine filtered through that idea, with a handful of international dishes still sitting alongside it. Only seven or eight dishes turn over each season. Everything else stays on the menu and gets revised instead, which is why half the dishes carry version numbers into the teens. Each one an admission that the last attempt wasn't finished yet. The drinks side gets the same treatment. A curated list of Bulgarian craft beer and wine, instead of the generic taps a park restaurant usually gets away with.
