Welcome to the Club: A Croatian Sports Centre Serving Seafood With a Side of Soccer

What’s the collective noun for a group of soccer-obsessed Croatians? The jury is out, but they’re incredibly fun.

We’re having dinner near the sidelines of a soccer field. The vast, floodlit green turf surrounding the Croatian Sports Centre endures a stampede of soccer boots during Friday night training and Saturday matches.

“There was nothing out there before,” founding president Ante (Tony) Kilic OAM tells Broadsheet. “Just 27 acres of paddocks.”

You can’t miss it now. The towering sports centre is home to the Adelaide Croatia Raiders Soccer Club, founded in the early 1950s by Croatian migrants. The club’s first home ground was in Adelaide’s South Parklands, but since building its own clubhouse in the industrial streets of Gepps Cross, just past the iconic armadillo-like Adelaide Super-Drome, the community has blossomed.

The club’s bistro and bar are open to the public on Friday nights, and while a love of soccer isn’t essential, a thing for seafood helps. The jelovnik (menu) champions Croatian seafood dishes, including the signature cijeli zubatac (whole snapper cooked over a charcoal grill), which is so popular that diners have to order ahead.

Cultural connections with Free Range Seafood mean the seafood is freshly caught.

“It’s priced by weight and very popular, so we need to make sure we have enough for everyone,” says current club president Juli Cirjak. “It’s especially busy here on game nights.”

The club is also home to the amateur team Vukovi, the women’s league team Lisice, bocce facilities, a playground and a kid’s playroom.

With a membership of 1500 people and space for 350 bums in seats, there are a lot of mouths to feed.

Taking on the task, is kitchen manager Anna Blazeka. The spiced, skinless Croatian sausages appearing on the chevape platter are made using her husband Josip’s recipe. She runs the kitchen like a well-oiled machine while a large clock keeps time above the kitchen counter, over which orders flow.

Seafood platters piled high with Australske skampe (South Australian king prawns), tentacles and fish fillets exit the kitchen at an impressive rate. The marinated snapper arrives with charcoal-kissed lignje na zaru (baby calamari rings), mixed greens and cabbage salad.

Requests for the krompir salata (potato salad) recipe are met with laughter. The volunteer-run kitchen team keeps its culinary secrets close, especially the outstanding potato salad.

The team is particularly proud of its olive oil.

“We planted 750 olive trees 25 years ago,” Cirjak says. “Soccer players and volunteers harvest the olives and send them off for pressing every year.”

For dessert, the kitchen turns out plates of palacinke, thin rolled jam crepes and fluffy krafne (Croatian-style doughnuts rolled in sugar).

Food orders are taken from 6pm to 9pm (or until sold out). By 6.45pm the queue is always peaking.

A bar strung with Croatian flags, soccer pennants and medals, serves a thrilling selection of Croatian tipples. Bottles of Dingac Plavac (a dry red wine) provide a glimpse into the southern Dalmatian vineyards, while bottles of Ozujsko and Karlovacko lagers satiate beer fans. The canned Ozujsko Grekp Grapefruit Radler is a revelation. The zippy mix of light lager and refreshing grapefruit juice clocks in at two per cent alcohol, so it’s a good option for designated drivers.

Stay long enough and nips of sweet Badel Kruskovac pear liqueur and Badel Sljivovica plum brandy appear, accompanied by a hearty “Dobar tek ” (bon appetit) and “Zivjeli” (cheers).

Visitors of all nationalities raise their glasses to this sporty Croat love fest.

“I’m here all the time – and I’m Italian!” says a regular called Pasquale, who first visited after stumbling upon the venue online.

Away from the action, a group of elderly Croatian men hunch over traditional card games. Meanwhile, local soccer legends hold court on bar stools, regaling pals with unforgettable match moments of yore. The walls are papered with a collage of soccer-related newspaper clippings and the faces of players past and present.

“Everyone is welcome,” Cirjak says. “In the eight years I’ve been here we’ve really opened up to the wider community. You couldn’t survive on members alone. We have so many different people coming through the door, and they always return with friends. Look around the room. You’re all welcome here.”

The Croatian Sports Centre is open on Friday nights from 5pm. On Saturdays during home games, the bar is open from 11am and a set menu is available.

Croatian Sports Centre
61 Anna Meares Way, Gepps Cross
08 8359 6606

crosportscentre.com.au