While driving through Virginia and searching for something to satisfy my sweet tooth, my friend found the "Balkan Bakery."

What is a Balkan bakery, you ask? That was my question, too.

First of all, the Balkans are a geographic region in southeastern Europe. This region includes the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Greece, and Slovenia.

So this bakery features pastries from this region.

That includes things like "burek," "strudla," "kifli," "ekleri," bread and crepes.

The Balkan Bakery is actually housed in the same building as another coffee shop, Zazzy'z.

When we walked in, I first saw the menu, and I was so excited to see lots of items I've never had before.

There was baklava, strudla (streussel), ekleri (eclairs), kilfli (croissants), bombinci (truffles), palacinki (Balkan crepes), and more.


Everything looked amazing.

I ended up trying a spinach and feta burek, which is a filo dough puffed pastry stuffed with savory ingredients.

And, I got a peanut butter balklava - which was easily the best baklava I've ever had. And it was all rolled and syrupy and amazing.

Do you have a favorite Balkan dessert?