The Historical Cafés of Vilnius

Archival sources show that in the early 18th century, Vilnius residents were already drinking coffee at home. However, the first mention of a Vilnius café in a document from 1787 is rather curious, as it states that a certain Mr Kliukowski had been selling coffee… illegally! Without permission, he had put up a signboard. Unfortunately, that is all we know about this ‘café’. However, the style of the document suggests that the café was not a novelty in Vilnius at the time but rather a sought-after business. It is known that already in the first half of the 19th century, there were several cafés in the city, which were well appreciated by visitors who were used to European cafés.

In the mid-19th century, this building was purchased by Karl and Jozefa Sztral, who opened their first café here. Later, the Sztral brothers took over their parents’ business and had three very popular cafés in Vilnius: ‘White Sztral’ (Biały Sztral in Polish as it would have been referred to at that time), ‘Red Sztral’ (Czerwony Sztral) and ‘Green Sztral’ (Zielony Sztral). The name was determined by the colour of the interior, but it was not only the colour that differentiated the cafés – the clientele of each café was very different.

Old-timers described in their memoirs the sumptuous interior: carved wood furniture, Viennese-style chairs, small tables and mirrors adorning the walls. However, the main ‘decoration’ was the counter, laden with all kinds of delicacies. There was another room in the depths of the building, where the cosy twilight, the pink sofas and the heavy curtains were the most alluring for romantic couples.

For modern Vilnius residents, the building at Pilies g. 26 is first and foremost associated with the House of the Signatories. At the time of the signing of the Act of Independence (16 February 1918), a café called ‘Biały Sztral‘ (‘Baltasis Štralis’ or ‘White Sztral’) was located on the ground floor.

And who were the customers of the White Sztral? Those who were inquisitive! At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, this place was a favourite haunt of landlords, doctors, lawyers, priests (the café was even known as the Priest’s Sztral) and lovers who came to Vilnius. Between the wars, university professors and other intellectuals often gathered here. 

For a long time during the Soviet era, ‘Baltasis Štralis’ was a bland eatery, constantly changing its meaningless name. In 1960, the canteen was assigned to the Narutis Hotel, took its name and became… a restaurant. However, the name did not change anything – it remained a cheap canteen, and in 2002 the canteen disappeared. 

However, now, the ‘Eskobar’ coffee shop now operates on the premises.

‘Vaiva’ – this is another café that disappeared from the map of Vilnius between 1964 and 2000. Nowadays, probably few people remember that, although it was officially called a café, until 1971, ‘Vaiva’ was famous for… šašlyk (skewered kebabs)! The new place, where you could not only have a coffee but also a meal, was extremely popular, with a queue often forming outside the door. After the reconstruction in 1968, the café grew in size, but shish kebabs disappeared from the menu. ‘Vaiva’ became a typical Soviet-era café, where you could have not only a cup of coffee or tea but also a glass or a cuppa and snack on sausages with mustard, cottage cheese with sour cream, or potato salad. 

Of course, the change in the menu led to a change in clientele. From 1972, there was a growing number of students and laid-back young people in no hurry to get a coffee and who sat for hours in the café or just hung around. It was here that the first hippies of Vilnius began to gather: Rimas Burokas, Artūras Barysas, Borisas Lazukinas, Aleksandras Jegorovas (Džyza), and Alvitas Taunys. Many of the visitors had Western nicknames and tried to live by the motto “Live fast, love hard, die young”. 

Around 1983, punks appeared in ‘Vaiva’, bringing their innovative music and fashion. Later on, heavy metal fans congregated here – even gloomier and cooler. But despite the new styles that emerged, everyone fit under the same roof – the diversity of the clientele only increased. 

Unfortunately, the situation did not improve after the restoration of independence. Manners continued to deteriorate, the public became disgusted, and over time ‘Vaiva’ became a place with a bad reputation. People began to distinguish this place of ill-repute from the old café and its public and the new; inevitably, the ‘old’ times were romanticised. And in 2000, ‘Vaiva’ quietly disappeared forever.

‘Rotonda’ first appeared to the public in 1957. The architecture of the ice cream parlour, designed by architect Gediminas Valiuškis, was very different from the grey buildings prevailing at the time, and the name ‘Fairy Tale’ stuck immediately. Families with children were the main visitors to the café, dropping in for ice cream, coffee, or snacks.

Over time, the Soviet fairy tale came to an end, and the café’s visitors and atmosphere changed. Most people remember the ice cream parlour’s face better than anyone else: artists – writers, poets, painters – and students, sipping coffee or stronger drinks, discussing, and competing on being witty. However, the decline that had begun was unstoppable, and the image of the late ‘Rotonda’ was already causing sadness and disappointment. Nėrius Pečiūra-Atsuktuvas, known as the father of punk, recalls that it was here that the first Vilnius punks gathered in 1982-1983, eating ice cream, drinking ephedrine-fortified or plain black coffee, chatting and hanging out for hours. The café and the coffee deteriorated until Rotonda closed in 1992.

It has now reopened again recently as a coffee and ice-cream parlour.

Few current Vilnius residents know that the symbol of Vilnius – the western tower of the Upper Castle, popularly known as the Gedimino Tower – was once, albeit briefly, a café.

In the 19th century, the hill of the Upper Castle underwent many transformations: in 1838, a two-storey wooden optical telegraph antenna was built on the western tower, and in 1896, the slope of the hill was replanted with trees, and a new road was built at the foot of it. However, perhaps the most popular change in the early 20th century was the addition of a café on the ground floor of the tower. 

The café opened its doors in 1901 when the tower was leased to Antoni Tyszkiewicz (Antanas Tiškevičius), who came up with the idea of a café; the city received 100 roubles annually for the rent. As far as is known, the tenants changed, and the café remained open until 1912. As was customary at the time, the café offered coffee, tea, and milk, as well as pastries. 

At the turn of the 20th century, there were not many cafés in Vilnius, but all of them had their own face and regulars. One of them was Rudnicki’s Café, founded in 1931. 

This café was where the artistic intelligentsia would congregate – Rudnicki’s was especially popular among intellectuals, writers, poets, journalists, theatre people, and students and professors of Vilnius University alike. The most famous visitor was undoubtedly Czesław Miłosz (Česlovas Milošas), at that time still a budding poet and a university student. As usual in cafés of the time, only coffee and confectionery were available, and no food or spirits (so-called alcohol) were sold. Stormy discussions and intellectual conversations took place not only while sipping, mostly ‘little black’, but also puffing away on cigarettes or a pipe. 

After the Second World War, there were several unsuccessful attempts to set up various canteens (even a diet canteen), but the star shone in 1960 when the Lithuanian SSR Writers’ Union set up the ‘Literatų Svetainė’ – a cheaper alternative to the famous ‘Neringa’ establishment further up the street. The ‘Literary Café’ had a rather modern décor, and its exclusive interior attracted regular visitors. It was particularly popular with writers and painters; what’s more, university students often even took their exams here. According to the writer J. Kunčinas, all those who came here, even if they did not write poetry themselves, were acquainted with and loved poetry, including the waitresses, administrators, cloakroom attendants, and the doorman. 

As times changed, or perhaps because of the unsuccessful restoration of the café in the mid-1990s, the attraction of this place waned. The new Lithuanians who had taken a liking to the café drove out the bohemians, students, and artists. After changing hands during independence, the café finally closed in 2006.

How did a café with the exotic name ‘Jugoslavija’ come into existence in interwar Vilnius?

Initially, Zdravko Boškov, a citizen of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later to become Yugoslavia), came to the city from Macedonia, where he is believed to have bought a café in the central street of A. Mickevičius (now Gedimino Avenue) from a citizen of Vilnius, Israel Bunimovich.

According to Zdravko’s granddaughter, her grandfather ended up in Vilnius by chance. The exact date of his arrival is unknown, but it was in the 1930s. The exact date of the wedding was in the late 19th century. The Viennese-style café ‘Jugoslavia’ was already open. Throughout the 1930s, there was an open-air restaurant. The business of the Macedonian brothers was thriving, and the café was frequented by both residents and visitors.

‘Jugoslavija’ was a spacious two-storey café. On the ground floor, visitors were treated to Austrian cakes and pastries, and on the second floor, oriental sweets. Only here could you taste Macedonian boza, a lightly fermented drink made from corn, millet or wheat, served chilled. The waiters, all tall, handsome, moustachioed brunettes, deftly rotated among the tables and served Turkish coffee with chicory, Balkan or Viennese-style coffee, biscuits, assorted sweets and other treats. Legend has it that ‘Jugoslavia’ was especially popular with the ladies who came to admire the handsome waiters.

Another former and irretrievably lost café, ‘Suokalbis’ was located inside the splendid home of the Writers’ Union. This neo-baroque palace was built in the 19th century by Count Ignacy Korwin-Milewski. Later, the house was bought by Duchess Maria Skórzewska Ogińska, who owned it until the Second World War.

After the war, not only the Writers’ Union but also the Composers’ Union moved into the palace. It was also home to the editorial offices of ‘Pergalė’ (now ‘Metai’), ‘Literatūra ir menas’ and a kind of writers’ hostel in the former Count’s apartments. Initially, this place was a closed buffet for the members of the Writers’ Union, but over time it evolved and became the legendary ‘Suokalbis’, with the golden age of the latter being 1994-1998.   

Many Vilnius residents, if they haven’t visited, know at least from hearsay about the crazy shenanigans and dancing on the tables, where alcohol was flowing freely, and everyone was partying like there was no tomorrow. It is common to think that this was a place for artists, mainly writers and poets, but it was a very democratic café where people from all walks of life gathered with open and sensitive hearts. It is impossible to list all the literary figures who visited here who have now become giants of the literary pantheon. But what is amazing is that both those who were just starting out and those who were already established always found a common language, and the discussions were fiery and interesting, engaging everyone.

As life and economic conditions changed, the café tried to survive but did not escape closure in 2010.

In 2014, the cocktail bar ‘Salionas’ opened here, honouring the legend of ‘Suokalbis’ but creating a new era of its own.

The first mention of the ‘Red Sztral’ café was in A. Vinogradov’s guide to Vilnius in 1904. It was the chicest of the three ‘Sztral’ cafés with a spacious hall, plush, red upholstered chairs, and a wide range of products. It was the most romantic café in Vilnius. It was here that romances and dating were forged, often ending up in church or living together. 

Ladies and their cavaliers were the café’s main source of income, but newspaper reporters and editors also liked to gather here to share their news. Various officials, freelancers, big merchants and landlords visiting Vilnius were also frequent guests of the ‘Red Sztral’.

The situation changed in the autumn of 1939 when the atmosphere of romance and amorous adventure evaporated, and the café became a simple inn; the old glory of the café did not return after the war. In 1948, after a small renovation, the ‘Red Sztral’ was renamed ‘Neris’ and became a diet canteen for a couple of decades. After a major reconstruction in 1980, ‘Vilija’ opened its doors – an ambitious complex of a canteen, candy store, ice cream parlour, and milk bar that sold culinary creations. It was almost a kind of factory with everything under one roof and boasted 180 employees and a capacity of 300 customers at a time; however, the old ‘Sztral” was all but forgotten apart from the strange pink lighting harking back to its older days, alluding to the promise of intimacy.

In 1962, a youth café dubbed ‘Skaitykla’ or ‘Čitalka’ was opened under the auspices of the Komsomol (the Communist Youth organisation); it operated in the premises of the reading room of the ‘Žinija’ Society. Paradoxical as the location of the café may sound, it was a modern centre for jazz and cultural events, a kind of mecca for young people.

Although the café was only open for three years, it helped the first generation of young people born after the war to emerge. A more appropriate name for the Youth Café would be the Jazz Club, as jazz was always playing here, with the likes of Vyacheslav Ganelin, Grigory Tal, Remigijus Pylipaitis, Aleksandras Melnikas, Liudas Šaltenis, and a host of other local and international musicians.

It is particularly amazing that in those Soviet years, the café avoided politicised events, and the young people themselves proposed the themes and participants of the events. It was here that frequent visitors would offer their latest works – whether musical, literary or photographic – for the attention of the public. Also, various lectures on modern music, literature, travel, philosophy, space, and technical innovations took place here; everything that attracted and interested young people was under one roof.

Several factors contributed to the short life of the Youth Café: the political changes in the Soviet Union after Nikita Khrushchev was ousted from power, the complexity of departmental subordination (both to the Komsomol and to the ‘Canteen Trust’), the unprofitability of the cafeteria, etc. Nevertheless, the café, known affectionately by its clientele as ‘Čitalka’ (from the Russian word for ‘read’ читать), infected a whole generation with jazz and, more importantly, brought jazz musicians together, encouraging them to experiment, play together, and form new ensembles.

The ‘Green Sztral’ was different from the other cafés in the trio of Vilnius’ Sztrals’ firstly in terms of its clientele. Here, it was rare to find intellectuals or representatives of the bohemian life of Vilnius; instead, this was the domain of mostly older men where local townspeople and merchants who came to Vilnius to discuss business matters gathered together. The patrons of this café had more of a penchant for beer than coffee, so the real coffee connoisseurs did not visit here, as the coffee lacked a special aroma and was nothing to write home about. Since the majority of the customers were men, the women who came in to keep them company were not shy about being free-spirited. Incidentally, the ‘Green Sztral’ had its own orchestra. It was a female septet consisting of a conductor and six girls playing various musical instruments, and in their long white dresses, they looked like seven candles. The beautiful musicians were Jewish, and with the rise of anti-Semitism before the Second World War, threats were made against the owner and the girls themselves. The orchestra was dismissed, and the café became boring and, as Rapolas Mackonis, who ironically described interwar cafés, remarked, “The ‘Žaliasis Štralis’ became even more brutal”.

During the Soviet era, it was a restaurant and canteen. After the restoration of independence, the architect Audronė Kaušpėdienė attempted to give the place a new image – at the end of 1996, ‘Vilnius Gastronomas’ opened its doors, with a café and restaurant offering a wide selection and an exceptional design. Unfortunately, this idea did not work and only lasted about a couple of years.

You would be hard-pressed to find a single person in Vilnius who doesn’t know the ‘Neringa’ café and even young people who prefer other types of cafés have certainly heard stories about the place from their parents or grandparents.

What is so special about this legend created by the Nasvytis brothers in 1959? Back then, it was striking for its modern and exceptionally polished interior, perfectly thought out and creating a seaside atmosphere. The café was a true work of art! 

But above all, it was about the public and the ‘professors’ table’, where only the holy, ‘initiated’ intellectuals of the older generation could sit. The café was famous throughout the Soviet Union and the artists and writers who came to the café to party felt as if they were in the West. “There was a bohemian mood at ‘Neringa’, and it was always possible to see or meet a personality who would be the subject of a later story.

In the early years, ‘Neringa’ was a bit snobbish, but later it became more democratic. From the very beginning, the café was known for its excellent cuisine. And although many people remember the famous ‘Chicken Kiev’, the signature dish was the Beef Stroganoff. Students who came to catch a glimpse of some celebrities and or perhaps to engage in some earwigging and eavesdrop on interesting conversations opted for cheaper dishes, one of the most popular of which was potato crescents with mushroom sauce. The glory years lasted until the 1990s, when some of the regulars got older and moved abroad, and younger people tended to prefer new cafés.