At first glance, the roadside restaurant at Trojane may look like an ordinary “gostilna,” a traditional Slovenian country inn. It’s only the long line that usually snakes from the parking lot – as well as the pervasive smell of sugar and fried dough -- that suggests that this “gostilna” is something special.

Located near a pass on the major road between Ljubljana and Štajerska (Slovenian Styria), Trojane has always been a popular stop for travelers. Between the two world wars, it was enlarged into a 20-room hotel under the ownership of the entrepreneurial Konjšek family. For travelers who needed to spend the night on the road, the Konjšeks’ inn was the perfect stopover.

After World War II, however, the inn was nationalized by the Communist authorities and the state took over its operations. For several years, the establishment remained dormant, but in the 1950s, the state-owned company in charge of Trojane decided to revive the inn under the management of Rajka Konjšek, a member of the family who ran it so successfully before the war. Konjšek was initially one of just two employees, and in 1961, she decided to offer something new to the truckers and other professional drivers who frequented the inn: Slovenian jelly doughnuts known as “krofi.” At first, she fried ten a day using her own recipe.

Much to everyone’s surprise, the doughnuts turned out to be a huge success. Konjšek’s special recipe made her “krofi” a highly sought-after treat, and people began stopping by just to purchase boxfuls of her unusually tender doughnuts. In just a few years, Konjšek and her newly expanded team were making 150,000 of them a year. The inn soon began buying their ingredients by the ton.

Today, as many as 5000 “krofi,” often called the best in Slovenia, are made at Trojane each day. Even though several varieties of doughnuts are now offered, the traditional jelly-filled variety remains the most popular. According to some counts, more than 100 million have been sold since Rajka Konjšek served the first one more than half a century ago.

Even the construction of a new freeway that bypasses Trojane did not slow the demand for the famous doughnuts. Many travelers now exit the freeway and make a detour for their chance to wait in line for Slovenia’s most beloved roadside treat.