On the Vilnius-Kaunas road, Algirdas Brazauskas’ favorite place is still open: parties were held here without restrictions and deficits

Imagine the strange times in Lithuania: fifty and forty years ago, those who considered themselves teachers liked to live such a semi-secret life. They visited places that would be difficult for ordinary people to enter, had separate rooms, and held a splendid banquet there. Celebrate without restrictions and without any deficits.

During the Soviet years, and then during the first decade of independence, this place was located in the town of Bačkoniai, district of Kaišiadorys, a restaurant of the same name: “Bačkonys”. Everyone who has driven the A1 Vilnius-Kaunas section of the highway at least once, 58 kilometers from the capital or 42 kilometers from Kaunas, has definitely seen the old billboard for this place.

Although there is no signal, but the entire construction, the pioneer of Lithuanian outdoor advertising, one of the oldest remaining in our country. On both sides of the road are triangular wooden buildings, in the middle of which, something like handbag, and in the middle – the inscription “Bačkonys”. In my head, no other restaurant on the main highway in the country has such exclusive advertising. Because no other inn along the road has been considered a prestigious elite restaurant. Although this is a distant past, the signal has been maintained, it has even been seen that it has been updated. The restaurant itself is not intact at all, it remains as it was in the times of the Soviet elite. Fifty equal years. Some would say that the big drawback is not changing anything, not innovating and not following fashion. The manager of this restaurant, on the other hand, is glad that he managed to keep the “classic”.

Bačkonys opened in the seventies. Initially, it was a state institution, and when independence came, I privatized it and still run it, ”says Romutis Paškauskas, a well-known businessman from the Kaišiadorys region. He knows all the restaurant’s secrets better than anyone, but some still can’t make it public. No one will ever know all the names of those who visited here, when, what they ate, and in what condition they returned home. However, Romutis is happy to disclose a few things, which does not harm its past or current clients. For example, he confirmed to me that it was one of the favorite places of President Algirdas Brazauskas in Lithuania, at least on the Vilnius-Kaunas highway, it is definitely the most favorite and most visited restaurant.

To hide from prying eyes, President Brazauskas used to go to eat and sometimes to make noise. Entrepreneur Romutis confirms that Brazauskas not only had his favorite table, but the entire separate banquet room. “He had tried our entire menu when the president arrived, we brought him everything. Of course, he also had his favorites. What he liked the most was the Bačkoniai brand pork roll and our brand name meat potato pancakes, ”reveals the longtime restaurant owner, a former sponsor of Brazauskas’s first election campaign. “We were close friends, because we both come from Kaišiadorys, we really had themes and things in common,” he says.

In addition to many local politicians and businessmen, Romutis Paškauskas remembers the day when the then Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who ruled our great neighbor to the east in 1998-1999, visited his restaurant. “Primakov was impressed with our kitchen, he said he ate very tasty food. But I don’t remember what dishes we prepare then. Maybe we serve the same pork roll, ”he thinks.

Many years have passed and politicians and businessmen have somehow forgotten the way to the town of Bačkoniai, located between Vilnius and Kaunas. Times have changed, fashions have changed, today’s powerful people eat where everyone else is. If they wanted, they could now advertise elite restaurants on Gediminas avenue in the capital and on Gynėjų street, which is located around the Seimas building, where both ministers and chairmen of all committees can be seen every day. And with the prime minister, I ate in the same restaurant in the old town. But this time, it’s not about that, but about the legendary “Bačkonis”.

Having decided not to change anything at all in the restaurant, sometimes the businessman Romutis begins to regret this decision. After all, some diners hear criticism that the interior looks dated, the furniture is overly worn, and knife forks are no longer in style these days. However, he is comforted by the fact that at least a couple of times a week, those good people who do not skimp on the classic sweet applause also visit. “It should be difficult to keep things that way, there are few of those places left,” they praise us. And this is the most important thing for an entrepreneur. As long as someone likes it, they’ll keep everything as if it were fifty years ago. And those thirsty for innovation are sent to the center of Kaišiadorys, where the daughter of an entrepreneur has her own Italian restaurant.

At Bačkonys, visitors can choose where they would like to eat, be it in a small lounge next to the bar, which is more reminiscent of a simple cafe, or in a large hall that was once full of visitors and fought for a free table. And when the weather permits, many like to eat outside, on the banks of a local pond. By the way, the owner Romutis has his favorite place there, where the business clubs of the Kaišiadorys region meet on Friday nights. The girls working at the restaurant revealed that they are ordering a dish that is not even on the official menu: chef’s special ribs and a large plate of vegetables and potatoes alongside them.

The legendary restaurant is now much quieter than it was in the good old days. The main face of the bar is always here: the manager of this place Jolanta, and during the hours when more customers arrive, after the shift, the local Kaišiadorys police officer, Samanta, joins in to help with his main work.

“Most people order potato pancakes with meat, a classic Kiev cutlet, and of course the famous Backonie steak,” they told me. It turns out that the taste of most visitors matches Brazauskas’ hobbies or many people know what the president liked and just blindly copy it.

Although the restaurant is located in a quiet village, the prices here are not entirely rural, they are more reminiscent of Vilnius and Kaunas. For example, the Bačkoniai pork fillet stuffed with mushrooms mentioned more than once in this text costs 10.90 euros. Grilled salmon fillet will cost more in euros. From a menu of more interesting options, I noticed a Limassol cheese steak named after a popular city on the island of Cyprus. “We get this cheese from a local cheese factory, a very good product, very tasty,” praised the restaurant manager Romutis.

You can learn more about the Bačkonys restaurant on the Orijus Travels program about the Kaišiadorys district, which will be broadcast on Delfi TV on Wednesday. There I will also look at other popular places in this region.