Irena Kezić, owner of Joey’s Pizzeria in the West Village District, fled Banja Luka, the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, when she was 16. It was the age at which young women were sent to the front lines of the Balkan War (1992-1995) to serve as medical corpsman, triage specialists, and gofers of various kinds in the now infamous war that resulted from the balkanization of Yugoslavia. Banja Luka was home to Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs and Croats, and while the details of the conflict are horrifying and complex, Kezić’s family simply wanted their daughter to survive, and so they made arrangements to get her out of the country and handed her 60 Deutsch Marks (less than 100 US dollars) for the journey.

The plan was to get her to Germany – she spoke German as a second language – but the journey stalled in Hungary on the Austrian border when the man who had been paid to take her abandoned her and stole her suitcase. It was mid-December, and a call home only managed to get her connected with her brother.

“My parents had gone to the market to buy a cow, and it took so many attempts to complete a phone call then because the war had damaged all the lines, so I decided to walk to the next village,” Kezić said.

The five-mile walk through freezing temperatures brought her to a hotel owned by sisters. When they opened the door, Kezić collapsed. 

“They took me in, and fortunately, I still had my passport,” she said. “I cleaned rooms for a while because I still wasn’t able to get to Germany.”

The big break came when the sisters asked her to translate for a local businessman. He needed documents translated to German, as he was helping get people out of the Balkans into Germany. 

“One day he came back with a vanload of refugees and we talked,” Kezić said. “I told him what was happening with me, and he said he could help. He said he’d have to have my passport, and I was scared, but I gave it to him. He said he’d be back within a week.”

Day seven came and went with no sign of the man, and she started to worry she’d been taken advantage of again, but he showed up on the eighth day with the paperwork she needed. He even agreed to take her to Germany to meet her paternal uncles.

“I only had my uncles’ work number, and when we arrived at the work site, it was already 3 p.m. on a Friday, and they were gone. I had no way of finding them, so the man said I could just go with him rather than be left alone in a strange city for the whole weekend.” 

Kezić ended up living with the family until she married, working as she could, and even trying to send money home. She was in Germany from 1993 to 1998 – her parents had moved to the U.S. in 1994 – and she arrived in Oklahoma in March of ‘98, where her maternal aunt and uncle lived. 

“My first job was at Mr. Spriggs BBQ,” she said. “They had a location on NW 36th and May back then. Then it was Office Depot, but it was SM&P – a company that marked utility lines – that connected me to Chip Fudge.”

Kezić worked for Fudge’s Claims Management Resources for nine years. Fudge also employed her father, Marko Kezić, as a painter.

“They’re a family with an Old World work ethic,” Fudge said. “I was proud to be there ten years after Marko arrived when he was naturalized. Irena was the top producer at CMR after one year. She was working at the original Joey’s when she came to me about having her own place.”

“I was getting fat working in Chip’s office,” Kezić said, “so I took a waitress job at Joey’s when it was over on Classen. (Ed. The location is now The Saucee Sicilian.) Eventually, I used my 401K to buy Joey’s in 2007.”

In 2010, Fudge was part of a group that was trying to develop the historic Film Row area of downtown, and he knew they’d need a restaurant to anchor the area. 

“I offered Irena a partnership,” Fudge said. “I told her we’d triple or quadruple the size of her business if she moved to Film Row. It gave us the ability to add a bar, which increased revenue. She’s been an excellent partner, and I’m happy to say Joey’s Pizzeria has always operated in the black.” 

Kezić opened Joey’s in Film Row in 2011, and married Rusty Kendrick in 2012. She now goes by Irena Kendrick Kezić, and the couple have had three children – twin daughters and a son – and she has a daughter Tea Avdalovic from her first marriage, who works front of house at Joey’s. 

Over the years, she has quietly put Bosnian food on the menu at Joey’s, and regularly offers soups and specials for the Balkans. The stuffed collard greens are one of the best dishes in OKC, and she cures her own meats for the charcuterie, making her a rarity in the metro, where so much charcuterie simply isn’t; it’s cold cuts from plastic packages. Her sremska is the best pork sausage I’ve tried, and the pickles are phenomenal. Kezić is comfortable baking too, and her focaccia and various “pitas” are stellar.

On October 7, she will be hosting a Bosnian Night at Joey’s with spanakopita, cevapi, ajvar, focaccia, cabbage rolls, cured and smoked meats, and other Bosnian specialties. We’ll post more details as they are finalized. And of course there will be Slivovitz.