Hill goes to the gypsies: “I would come again, not even for food”

Here I am over the Gypsy Lounge & Grill restaurant, which is in the old town, very close to the Philharmonic, and whose opening sounded so good that we started to think that there would probably be something run down, probably about two hundred seats, a dance floor and a place for an orchestra, and It turned out that here the bar as a pocket, 26 planting places along with a terrace, if we count correctly. This is how good publicity is good: from experience, I can tell you probably have a lot of good friends.

So who is offended by the word “gypsy”? Wait, I’ll tell you, my tolerant and offensive friends and colleagues, and do you know that these people (I’m talking about a restaurant) call themselves gypsies? On the menu and “Dzūkija gypsy” soup) and mussels “Gypsy Aza”, and the menu of politically incorrect cocktails about a missing horse, including the name of the bar with the English word “Gypsy”, which was once declared as politically incorrect , was invented to be called “Rome”, that is, the Roma, and both words have stayed, and everyone is better, and nobody offends you. No one offends you unless you are ready to offend you. The group “Reyes Gitanos” and the beetle, called the strange silkworm in Lithuanian, remained. : Gypsy Moth, a gypsy moth, and no one at this restaurant is afraid of names and plays proper gypsy music (I’ll write about music separately).

The menu is now quite small, occasional (this is what was served on July 6, maybe other days on other days too). Of course, we couldn’t help but ask for gold zeppelins (€ 5.90) ​​- these are normal Lithuanian zeppelins with real gold foils on top. Like anyone who has tasted gold in life (and I’ve had success more often than others: some chefs like to surprise untrained palate customers with big wallets, especially Chinese and Russian, mainly because they don’t surprise them from another way), I knew that gold is odorless and tasteless and has no consequences for the quality of the dish, but there was so much laughter, gypsy fun that suited hooligan music, roughly Gogol Bordello, post-punk gypsy rock. I thought thank God, although I don’t play romances: gypsy romances were popular in the Soviet Union, there was even a gypsy song theater in Moscow, and the government tolerated and even encouraged it as an activity of national minorities, but for the Most of the listeners were like an allusion to the pre-revolution, when the gentlemen ate vodka in restaurants and ate caviar from a bowl and were touched by gypsies with red ribbons on the guitars.

Those attributes are here too: a guitar and brass and note blades are attached to the ceiling, and the interior itself is ironically made gypsy, I especially liked the gold speakers.

And what about zeppelins? Not bad to say, but that fat (called padlivkos) is overwhelmed by God, God, like velvet to be fuller. I think 90 percent. The people of Lithuania would like it very much, others also pour fat on the chops, “just to be fuller”, but I don’t like it anyway, but I agree here, because such nostalgia blew it, in the kitchen of the past . There could be more sour cream, because now it is.These were not fantastic zeppelins (except for gold), but they had such a nostalgic concept. Except that the greaves were unfortunately too big and raw, more effort should be made next time.

The nostalgia party: this is what I can say about the melted pork fillet with cheese, Tabor Scrap (8 EUR). With a few cherry tomatoes (much more irony here) and potatoes, that dish was so old, that in the times of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, it wasn’t interesting, it was more interesting than the taste, it reminded me of the times it started cooperation and in some cooperative coffees (here we are talking about 1987 or similar) the main course was a hot “Youth” sandwich (bread, stale, some ketchup and / or mayonnaise, and all melted with fermented cheese, mmm, past) . It’s a great cheese-baked pork that was exactly from those days. The restaurant deserves an award just for the fact that it has authentically restored Lithuania’s late Soviet cuisine, which is no longer available. For many, it is too scary to be remembered: it seemed so to me before, but now I realize that it is just a historical experience here.

The culminating journey to the past is Vendetta del Barón pizza, € 6.90, and revenge means revenge, if at all here, like the famous Montezuma revenge, unrelated, but so-called Mexican tourists experience burning diarrhea after water and local food. Pizza: with sausages, meatballs, sun-dried tomatoes and fried onions, and I will tell you that it reminded me of my entire youth, perhaps in 1984 or the like, when I opened a “Vidudienis” pizzeria on Gediminas Avenue in Vilnius, even back then Soviet, and there were queues next to it, and Italian electric pizza ovens were bought from the last Soviet monetary resources, which no one used but simply used for decoration, and the pizza was brought into the kitchen through swinging doors so lowered And that pizza was basically a baked potato with a bit of mayonnaise, the same meatballs or Chechen sushi, and grated with fermented cheese that melted. How I liked those pizzas! They were horrible, but for me it was a bit of new food. I went there and ate as soon as I found the time and the money. the gypsy pizza on its sole was identical, and the pieces of sausage that had been sintered into the slag were the same authenticity that it needed. refraction than gourmet eating, but how much can I eat salmon, caviar, scallops and meat for 120 euros per kilogram? Sometimes you can also enjoy the memories.

The dessert with ice cream and cottage cheese filling was a return to the school buffet, there was a cake with curd for seven kopecks, called “Cream”, that’s all, just short. People say that the cooperative stores in the province still bake such, but I already have can no longer find.

Well, the gypsy tea with oranges, fresh cherries and strawberries was already a nice final adoption for me, it reminded me that my grandmother in Kaunas sometimes gave me some “cherry tea”, that is, cherry leaves filled with water hot, and it was wonderful. There were five pieces of sugar next to the tea, which in my opinion is the maximum dose allowed under the laws of the Republic of Lithuania: more sugar for tea would already mean inspectors from the Department of Drug, Tobacco and Alcohol Control (not they are a long way away, St. Stephen’s Street), because from such a quantity of sweetness in the blood a hallucinogenic effect can be obtained when the guitar on the ceiling begins to jump and walk on small legs, playing the motifs of Raj’s songs.

I would like to mention the service separately: it was chaotic (they say they are still learning, be patient) and extremely benevolent and welcoming. There is no one accessible at the table, they are two waiters at the same time, the tools that fall to the floor can be heard in the kitchen, the employees keep pushing and bumping into each other, but everything is very benevolent and fun.

We both paid € 37.70 and left a tip. Lithuania, Vilnius and the world need such restaurants. For food, two geese, but for all the idea and good humor, I’d give it all five, so the overall rating is three strong, drastic gypsy geese with golden beaks.

Gypsy Lounge & Grill, Etmonų st. 2, Vilnius. Tel. +370 631 77725. Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/gypsy.lounge.and.grill

Sunday to Wednesday from noon to 11pm, Thursday from noon to 12:15 am, Friday and Saturday from noon to 3:00 am.