The hotel kept its order books in a cupboard behind the bar, and when it closed in 1950 nobody thought to throw them away. They tell us exactly what Kaunas drank before the war.
Gin, mostly
Lithuanian gin, made in Kaunas itself, arrived by the case every Monday. Most of it went into a dry Martini, very cold, which the books call simply "the usual".
The Sidecar
Cognac came from France by way of Riga and was expensive. A Sidecar cost three times a glass of beer, and the books show it was ordered most on Saturday nights after the opera.
Honey and bitter orange
The drink that gave the bar its name, the Saulėja, appears in 1934: gin, bitter orange and honey from a farm near Kėdainiai. We make it the same way, with honey from our own roof.
How we make them now
Lukas keeps to the old proportions and changes only what the years have improved: better ice, colder glasses and oranges that taste of orange in November.
