Autumn comes to Vilnius all at once. One week the terrace is full at ten in the evening; the next, the light is gone by six and everyone wants to be indoors, somewhere warm, with something darker in the glass. So the bar turns with the season. For the colder months there are three new cocktails on the list, heavier and sweeter than summer, and each one takes its name from something Lithuanian.
Paukščių Takas · Milky Way
Bourbon, coffee, coconut, and cream. On the menu we call it a strong dessert, and that is the honest description: rich, cold, and not to be underestimated. The name is the Lithuanian one for the Milky Way, and it translates literally as the birds' path. The old belief was that migrating birds find their way south by following it. In autumn, when the geese go over the city, it seems the right name for a drink you order at the end of the night. €10.
Riešutų Pyragas · Hazelnut Cake
Hazelnut, honey, and cinnamon. Like a warm slice of hazelnut cake, the kind someone's grandmother made when the nuts came in from the woods in September. It is the gentlest of the three, and the one to start with if you are not sure where the evening is going. €11.
Grybų Karas · Mushroom War
A negroni twist: dark rum, sweet vermouth, and Campari infused with baravykai, boletus, the mushroom Lithuanians hunt for in the forest every autumn and argue about for the rest of the year. The name comes from Grybų karas, the old folk song in which the boletus rallies the other mushrooms to war. The drink is earthy, bitter, and deeper than a negroni has any right to be. It is the one people ask about. €13.
The ones that stay
The signatures are still here. Gintaras, amber, with whiskey, quince, and rosemary, smoky and sweetly sour, drinks like autumn anyway. Pavasaris and Joninės keep spring and midsummer on the list for anyone who is not ready to let go. The spritzes stay too, all ten of them.
Something to eat
The kitchen is open Wednesday to Sunday, until 01:30 on Fridays and Saturdays, and the autumn list was made to sit beside it. A Mushroom War with the croque madame. A Hazelnut Cake with the baked camembert and blackcurrant jam. The Milky Way on its own, last, when you have finished eating and are not quite ready to leave. More on the food here.
Come in from the cold
The autumn cocktails are on the menu for the season. We are at Stiklių g. 4, on the old glassmakers' street in Vilnius Old Town, a minute from the Town Hall. The room is big and warm, the evenings are long, and it is only going to get darker outside.