The Bunny Beer & Bear Bone Flutes of Western Slovenia

As the late, great Anthony Bourdain famously said:
 
“Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.”
 
We’ve always agreed with his approach (except for the rare steaks, we’re vegetarians). So, when our local hosts asked us if we wanted to hit a local brewery at 1pm and have some traditional Slovenian food, we obviously said "Yes!" We found ourselves at Pivovarna Zajc, translated as “Rabbit Brewery”. As you can see below, they have a booming bunny theme for their establishment. It will perhaps come as no surprise that we had an amazing carrot soup (with a generous pinch of saffron); local homemade pasta stuffed with potato and served in a pumpkin, leek, and carrot sauce; and – surprise surprise, carrot cake for dessert. The other folks had local fish, so jokes about us eating like rabbits abounded. 

You may detect some subtle rabbit themes on the beer van

It's amazing how beer can bring people together. The conversations were far-ranging and covered Slovenia, America, Gen Z work ethics, music, terrible government taxes, home ownership, etc. After a brief lull in the conversation, the owner said:
 
“You see that cave over there?”
 
PD: “Yeah”
 
“That’s where archaeologists found the first flute”

PD: “Wait, that one that was made by Neanderthals!?”

“Yes, right over there."

Somewhere in these mountains is the cave where the famous flute was found.

This was an unexpected surprise. As lovers of all things historical, we had actually read about this discovery years ago. So right here, in this very special area riddled with caves and flowing with good, clean, magnesium-rich water, is where musical instruments may have been born. It kind of makes sense. ​

The famous neanderthal flute. Image by Petar Milošević. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

People lived in the caves in this area for millennia. They likely had to fight with cave bears and other megafauna (that have sadly gone the way of the dodo) for a chance to get a little break from the cold. It was in this very place, approximately 60,000 years ago, that some clever neanderthal with an artistic bent had some ice age inspiration. He or she poked some holes in a piece of leftover femur from a cave bear to create what may have been the very first wind instrument. It's a mere 4.5 inches (11.2 cm) long.

Why did they do it? There’s probably not that much to do if you’re living in a cave except stare at fires and paint on walls with ocher. Even if a man didn’t craft it, this is still pretty macho. Who kills something and then turns the corpse into a goddamned wind instrument?!? We give it an A+ for creativity and an A+++ for the sick sense of humor. If you want to see this boney flute for yourself, you need to travel to , just  can be seen the National Museum of Slovenia in the capital city of Ljubljana.
 
But back to the beer… This place started during Covid and has been steadily expanding since then, with a good bit of variety (i.e., stouts to wheat beers, not bears). Outside of Czechia (see previous posts here and here), it’s very hard to find beer that tastes so “clean”. The secret has to be that water and the brewmaster's attention to detail. They also only use hops from Slovenia (with the malts imported from Belgium). 

A perfectly chilled blonde ale

Pivovarna Zajc is just one of over 90 microbreweries for around Slovenia’s two million people. Just for perspective, that’s about as many people as are in Washington, DC and its suburbs.
 
Flavor Notes:
The clear water is the star here.

• LaLa Lager – clean, crisp, lightly bitter, unpretentious – everything a good lager should be.
• Blonde Ale – the handsome lovechild of a good Czech Pilsner and an English golden ale.
• Weiss - One of us joked this was a Slovenian Milkshake – much much better than McDonalds. Very unfiltered, cloudy, with a creamy mouth feel, and slight citrus tone
• Stout – super clean, dark and roasty with notes of bitter chocolate. One of the brewery’s favorites.

So, if you would like to visit for yourself, just click here to see when they're open and take your rental car to Reka 27, Reka 5282 Cerkno, Slovenia.

Stout and homemade carrot cake with white chocolate sauce.

Side Trips:
You MUST try some Slovenian cheese (sir). Each region has its specialty. We are partial to tolminc cheese from the area around Tolmin. Though you can find it at the store, it is best when bought directly from a local babushka who hangs a little sign outside of her house. We also found it the large, local grocery store in Nova Gorsica Slovenia.
 
Hiking is a BIG deal in this area. Everywhere you look are stunning, crystal-clear rivers and streams, with well-marked paths against rugged mountains. Watch out as they paths might double as local roads and can be colonized by cute, long brown slugs after a good down pour.
 
Conclusions:
Go to Slovenia. Eat the sheep cheese. Order a local beer at 1 pm and chat with the locals. Then, when you are nice and relaxed, craft a musical instrument out of the bones of your enemies.

The inside of the brewery. The weather was so good we had to drink and eat outside.