Taste of Tradition
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Mal McCrea Photo
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Mal McCrea Photo
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MALLORY&JUSTIN Mal McCrea Photo
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MALLORY&JUSTIN Mal McCrea Photo
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MALLORY&JUSTIN Mal McCrea Photo
BELGRADE GARDENS | BARBERTON
If not for a chance encounter, Barberton fried chicken may not have become a culinary legend. The first of several chicken houses in the city, Belgrade Gardens was founded by Serbian immigrants Mike and Smilka Topalsky in 1933. One evening, as Smilka prepared fried chicken, fresh-cut french fries, hot sauce and coleslaw for her family, a visitor became intrigued by the scent of her cooking and asked to try it. They loved the food, and it became Belgrade’s specialty — Barberton chicken was born.
The Topalskys passed the booming business down to daughter Sophia and son-in-law Kosta Papich, whose son, Milos, took over after he died. Now, more than 90 years later, the iconic institution still serves the same recipes Smilka cooked up.
“It tastes like my childhood,” says Milos. “Warmth, family and tradition. So many flavors are married together: salty, nutty, rich.”
Delivered fresh to the restaurant, the chicken ($12.99-$22.49) is salted, floured, breaded twice and fried in lard — essential, Milos says, to the taste.
“You won’t find chicken prepared this way anywhere else,” he says. “Not in the United States, unless you happen to come upon an Eastern European church.”
The accompanying hot sauce, a spicy side dish reminiscent of Spanish rice, is made using a blend of tomatoes, rice, fresh onions, Hungarian paprika and Hungarian wax peppers. Some customers use it as a dipping sauce, while some eat it on its own — the restaurant sells gallons every week.
Belgrade is more than just locally beloved. Public figures such as former Ohio Gov. Robert Taft and actress JoAnne Worley have visited — and, in 2010, the restaurant won a Food Network Barberton chicken “Food Feuds” cook-off, hosted by Iron Chef Michael Symon.
“That really enhances that pride factor — the fact that so many people think so much about the recipe,” Milos says.
Though it’s world-famous, Belgrade is still a homey place, a farmhouse filled with colorful knickknacks and sepia-toned family photos. Milos works to maintain the same quality that’s drawn generations of faithful diners using lessons instilled in him by his father.
“Everything that I know about business and being a man, he taught me,” Milos says. He wipes his eye with a napkin, unrolled from a silverware set. “I’m proud to be his son. I’m trying to keep that legacy going in his memory.” // CG
401 E. State St., Barberton,
330-745-0113,
