Guma
The soffit and scalloped canvas awning above the restaurant front, the maroon flank of the neighbouring block rising behind it under an overcast sky

Guma

Tradicional Grill Food

Himarë · Vlorë County · Albania

The open front seen from the promenade out of season, white cross-back chairs tipped in against cleared tables and a standing menu board out on the paving
01

The Grill

The kitchen names itself on the wall of its own dining room, in its own spelling — tradicional grill food, and no other adjective.

Lettering mounted on the dining-room wall reading GUMA above TRADICIONAL GRILL FOOD, a brass fitting lit at the right

The wall, in the room

Grill plates come out of it: flat cutlets and patties taken dark, thick-cut fries, a slice of tomato and a raw onion segment under balsamic, dressed leaves, a ramekin of sauce alongside — tan on one plate, white and dusted red on another.

The same four words are printed under the name on the standing board out on the pavement. Those two boards are the only places the house describes its own kitchen, and they say the same thing.

The plates, photographed
02

The Front

It stands open to the promenade under a white pergola, with the tables out on the paving and bougainvillea trained along the beam.

The restaurant front in summer, white channel letters reading GUMA above an open shopfront, bougainvillea trained along the pergola and white cross-back chairs set out on the pavement
The front in summer, from the promenade
03

The Room

Behind the pavement the room runs deep and cool: navy banquettes, pale spindle-back chairs, a ceiling of fine battens, brass fittings burning over the tables.

The dining room, navy banquettes and pale spindle-back chairs under a fine timber-batten ceiling and brass fittings, the front folded fully open onto the pavement terrace
The room, looking out through the open front

The front folds fully back in season, so the room and the terrace stop being two places. From a banquette at the back you look straight out along the length of it, past the tables and out under the pergola to the promenade.

Inside and out
04

Finding It

On the seafront promenade in Himarë, with the tables standing out on the paving in front of it.

A wooden A-frame chalkboard on the pavement, GUMA chalked across the top in pale blue above a list of dishes, the first two lines in pink and the rest in white

The A-board, on the pavement

Look for the letters rather than a number: GUMA in tall white capitals over an open front, a long printed panel of dishes running the fascia beside them, and the wooden A-board standing on the pavement below.

Getting to the door