Food or restaurants at first glance has little to do with cars or motorcycles, but on Thursday evening a group of enthusiasts gathered in Vilnius, Antežeri, where the new Burger Street officially opened its doors restaurant. This is a new place serving burgers and other American food, aimed at the audience of petrol heads or "electric heads" - a large parking lot, car seats instead of chairs and various car attributes suggest that every enthusiast will always find good food and conversations with their like-minded people here.
"Historically, since the establishment of "burgerstreet", many of the most faithful and loyal visitors have been auto-moto sports fans, mechanics, craftsmen and similar companies. We became good friends with many of them. They used to visit us for lunch or after work to spend time in a fun company, to chat with their team or other like-minded people. Perhaps the fact that the first restaurant was located on the Ukmergė road - next to a busy road, where there are many car repair shops, there was a large parking lot and the whole atmosphere of the place was very industrial, in the best sense of the word - had an influence. Various gatherings of car enthusiasts were often held," said Burger Street co-founder Linas Peluritis.
Restaurant the host says that they themselves have already participated in various motorsport events as the main food suppliers, and they were also particularly impressed by the Chill and Grill festival and its atmosphere. The restaurant's logo could also be seen on several racing cars - due to their passion for cars and good relations, the businessmen became sponsors of several athletes.
The requirements for the meeting place of motorists are extremely high
Selmas Adomonis, the organizer of the "Chill and Grill" car festival and one of the founders of "JDM.lt", said that the culture of enthusiast meetings in Lithuania has been slowly reviving in recent years: "A couple of years ago, we would have answered that the activity of car enthusiasts has decreased significantly, however in this Currently, there is no shortage of car lovers' communities in Lithuania. In recent years, the biggest influence on the growth of the number of communities, or at least those that call themselves so, was made by social networks, with the help of which it became very easy to attract even those who are not very interested in such social network communities."
S. Adomonis says that after accumulating almost 20 years of experience in organizing various events that unite car lovers, he can only confirm the fact that a high-quality meeting or gathering requires a lot of work, effort and experience: "We organize community meetings and larger or smaller events takes place in well-thought-out, long-searched and only places that meet fairly high requirements. We strongly believe that no gathering or event is better than a poorly chosen venue and no target audience. The meeting place must be aesthetically attractive, tidy, have good access and infrastructure, and not disturb the peace of outsiders, who probably have absolutely no interest in cars or our related activities."
S. Adomonis, who organized one of the largest and oldest car communities and is called the father of JDM in Lithuania, says that for a long time he was looking for a new place within the city limits, whose owners would feel close to the car culture and its proper nurturing, so he was very much looking forward to hearing about the new "Burger Street". He says he has high hopes that this new place will catch on and there will be more than one opportunity to meet to see various interesting cars, hear extraordinary stories, and have a delicious meal.
"One of the criteria for a good motorists' meeting is good and tasty food. We believe that beautiful, well-groomed models not seen every day in the gray mass of cars, interesting conversations with like-minded people, a delicious dinner is a really great way to spend a free evening or weekend afternoon", concludes S. Adomonis.
Presented a photo exhibition, donated a part of a racing car
Visitors to the opening of the new meeting place could take part in several activities: the fastest ones used a driving simulator to compete against each other on the race track where they drove an American Ford Mustang, those who didn't dare to get behind the wheel spun the wheel of fortune to win valuable prizes, and everyone gathered listened to Andrias Laucias, one of the most famous Lithuanian motorsport photographers , stories.
Last year alone, A.Laucius flew across the Atlantic more times than there are fingers on his hands. On his account most of the world's most prominent tracks and events, such as Daytona, Goodwood, WRC, MXGP. The photographer has already visited the Dakar Rally eight times in a row. The exhibition of his best photos can be viewed for another two weeks.
One of the best drift masters in Lithuania, Benediktas Čirba, who has just returned from the competition in Oman, brought to the new restaurant the trunk lid of his famous car "Čirba Fighter", which participated in many races. All visitors will be able to see this trophy with the athlete's signature.
"Encouraged and inspired by our friends, we decided to dedicate this "burgerstreet" to car culture. Coincidentally, even the developer of this newly built center is also a fan of the same theme. So, we created a space where fans of cars and motorcycles, surrounding residents and guests of the city could feel an industrial, non-binding, cozy atmosphere, where they could meet and chat with their friends and like-minded people. And we, in turn, will provide good food and full glasses", one of the founders, Jelena Baronienė, invited everyone to visit the new place.
