When was the last time you had a delicious heaping bowl of goulash or some delightful Bosnian pastries?

You’re thinking to yourself, “what in the hell is goulash?” and “what constitutes a Bosnian pastry?” Well my hungry and culturally unsound amigos, welcome to Euro Gourmet Market and Café located at 61 Main Street right here in darling Burlington, Vermont.

While we do have a handful of hip, quaint or eccentric coffee houses scattered throughout the streets of downtown, they’ve all been infiltrated by millions of tiny students who roam there for coffee and endless hours of whining about (i.e. not doing) their homework.

The coffee at these swinging hot spots is good, the pastries are average, the environments are nice-but it’s the same old place, where you’re interrupted by the same old passerbyers.

What used to be a cluttered used bookstore is now EuroGourmet, a shop that prides itself on importing European coffee-the richest, the finest, the darkest and this is truly the case. Coffee as thick as sludge, stews and soups that are hearty and unique and very Eastern European, Bosnian pop songs playing out over the sound system, and a little market boasting foods from all over Europe. Speaking as a slight coffee snob, and a connoisseur of international cuisine, I love this place. The green plush couches, the yellowy-orange painted walls, the sounds of a language I can’t understand are all fabulous qualities in a coffee shop.

Other perks to this little gem are the Bosnian karaoke sessions on weekends, the free wireless internet, and the paninis, soups and Bosnian specialties with ingredients I can’t pronounce. They are open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. until 9 at night, Friday’s and Saturday’s from 10 a.m. until 11p.m., and Sunday’s from noon until 8 p.m.

I think we, the citizens of Burlington, are blessed to have a new warm hub with a taste of Europe to hibernate in and survive the long and frigid winter ahead.