Vanagai is a cocktail bar first. But no one drinks well on an empty stomach, and Old Town gets hungry late. So there is a kitchen, and a real one: hot food and plates to share, Lithuanian and Italian, made to go with a long evening rather than end it. The bread and the focaccia we bake ourselves.
Hot food
Five hot dishes, and each one is a full stop to a hungry hour. The Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup is the one to order when the weather turns: a grilled cheese ciabatta with butter and pesto, and a bowl of tomato soup to dip it in. Dovydas' Breakfast is mortadella, mustard, honey, and provolone, named for a morning but good at any hour. Atostogos Genujoje, Holiday in Genoa, is pesto, arugula, jamón, mozzarella, and pickles, and tastes, as promised, like a holiday. Krokuvos Ponia is our croque madame: toasted mortadella with provolone and a goat cheese béchamel, a fried egg on top. And Česnakinės Krevetės, garlic shrimp in butter and dill, with focaccia for the pan.
Small plates
For less, or for more to share. A baked camembert with white wine and blackcurrant jam, pulled apart with our focaccia. Picos Kąsneliai, the same focaccia turned into pizza bites with Gouda, chorizo, and basil. A snack plate of cheese, meat, and bread; a bowl of marinated olives; Italian nachos, which are potato chips doing their level best. Order a few, put them in the middle of the table, and let the evening take its time.
The autumn list
The kitchen keeps company with the bar, and this season the bar leans into autumn. The exclusive cocktails read almost like dessert: Milky Way, bourbon with coffee, coconut, and cream; Hazelnut Cake, warm with honey and cinnamon; and Mushroom War, a negroni turned dark with boletus-infused Campari. A camembert and a Milky Way is not a sensible dinner. It is a very good one. More on the autumn list.
Open late
The kitchen is open Wednesday to Sunday, and on Friday and Saturday it stays on until 01:30. If you have been somewhere else first, or you are the kind who eats when the night is nearly done, this is a good address to keep. Late food in Vilnius Old Town is thinner on the ground than it ought to be, and we would rather you did not go home hungry.
Come hungry
Everything sits on the menu, drinks included, and all of it is built to sit beside a cocktail rather than compete with one. We are at Stiklių g. 4, in the old glassmakers' quarter, a minute from the Town Hall. Come for a drink; stay because there is something to eat.