When he couldn’t find a job, he started a business with LTL 50, and now he doesn’t want to retire.

When we arrived at Albina Cheburek in Prienai, we had a live queue for lunch one business day. People are waiting for their orders to be placed.

The hostess herself welcomes us at the door and takes us to the viewpoint.

“I am Albina Tankevičienė, owner of a sole proprietorship. My business is making chebureks, but now we make donuts and kibins, ”he says.

Today, the women’s business is 23 years old, and even before it was founded, she says she worked as a bartender in one of Prienai’s cafes.

“It just came to our knowledge then. I was 40 then and the situation was such that I was not very well received.

Everyone wanted young people and there was not much work. But I was still looking for him, I even went to the grandparents’ house to ask him, but my partner told me that she would only come if she couldn’t find anything, ”she says.

Finally, Albina remembers meeting one of her neighbors who had a small kitchenette where she made and sold chebureks.

“She said she didn’t want to do it anymore, so she came out to deliver the premises to me after a while.

He said I can go to work instead. He handed me the stove, there was a sink. I didn’t even think about it, maybe it was bad for her and now I hope so.

At that time, I still had preferential conditions to start a business because it came directly from the then Job Bank. This is how I started my company, ”Albina recalls, saying that she has started baking chebureks.

At the beginning of the business, the wind whistled in her pocket and she says she only had 50 litas.

“I don’t have money. The municipality offered me 500 LTL, but I didn’t accept it because I thought, and if I don’t win it, where am I going to get it?

I had 50 litas, I bought meat, onions, flour for that day and made chebureks. He bought everything that day, ”he says with a smile and says that day after day everything changes.

Now the woman makes and sells her cakes no longer in a small kitchen, but in front of her, across the street, she has a full cafe with 5 employees.

“It just came to our attention then. They are right in front of that kitchen. I’ve been working in this building for 13 years, ”he says.

Albina says that a lot of people buy her chebureks today, and she also sells 200 of them a day.

“And those who drive around the country, and the people of Lithuania, and even my own neighbors,” he says.

Although Albina, as she says, is already 70 years old today, she goes to work alone every day at 4 in the afternoon. in the morning.

“I mixed the dough, filled with kibinas, meat, vegetables, and sometimes I finish the day at 10 at night. I don’t know where my health comes from, but I’m not standing at the counter, I’m still going to sleep for a day.

I am afraid that with that rest it is the case that if I sit down, I will remain seated. It’s really 71 years old, if I sit down, I don’t get up, ”he says openly, adding that it takes a lot of movement to feel good.

In Albina, those who do not eat meat will not find cheburek, but according to them, you can offer kibinas with mushrooms, and the price of these cakes is 1.2 euros.

“In some places the kibins are more expensive and the chebureks are cheaper, but if you change the oil every day, they are not cheaper.

We change the oil every day and pour it in every night. Yes, I pass through Palanga and I can pierce with my finger what oil is old ”, says the woman.

Albina says she has 5 children, some of whom also have their chebureks open today. As they say, his daughter has one in Kaunas and his son in Alytus.