Rene's - New Restaurant in the Old Town

[Gene]

Has anyone heard about Rene's? Is it is a new restaurant in the old town. Seems to have a good selection of Belgian Beer and Food. There is a nice write up about Rene's in the Baltic Times: http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/20531/

It is located on Antokolskio g. 13

[Gene]

We went to Rene's last night. It was fun, but I am not sure it will become a "favorite place". Turns out that everything is in the style of the Belgian Painter Rene Magritte. Magritte has lots of paintings of men in bowler hats. So all of the waitresses wear bowler hats! Lots of posters of Magritte paintings on the wall...and a few more surprises for you to discover.

The menu is very artistic and interesting, but not a huge selection of food. The main dishes range in price from LTL 25-35, however, mostly a la cart. Thus you have to order side dishes separately. Beers are only Belgian, there are only 2 choices (9lta each) for small sizes (330 ml bottles). But they are pretty interesting if you have not experienced Belgian beer. The classical music in the background is pretty intense, not the type that promotes digestion. It makes you want to get up and run around the block.

Overall, we thought it was a fun experience, worth repeating, but not often.

[Tomuk]

Thanks for the review, Gene.
I will check it out next summer. Already looking forward to that Karmeliet or Kwak beer. Niam niam.

[Tomuk]

I went to Rene three weeks ago. I generally agree with Gene's comments. Though for me the music was pretty okay. It was definately a nice experience and the Belgian beers really made me feel home again.
To make some advertising, I would like to suggest Paradis Belge, the other Belgian restaurant in Vilnius, Rudninku gatve. Except for the saxophone, the interior is not what I would call Belgian, but the food is very decent (though you tend to pay a Western European price) and they got a wider range of good Belgian beers, like my favorite Chimay blue.

[phulinaa]

What is the normal pay for a restaurant manager? im looking into opening a dance club/restaurant in the future and im plaining on running the club part. but im not sure i can run the restaurant part. so i was wondering whats the normal amount that i would pay a restaurant manager?
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[Gene]

I do not know as I have never been in this business. I think if I were in your shoes, I would go to a couple of restaurants and speak to the owners. Some are quite friendly. For example, I used to go frequently to the Dubliner on Traku. There are four owners there and I spoke frequently to a british guy there, I think his name is Kevin. He was very friendly and frequently there. We spoke a few times about the restaurant business.

There is also the Indian owner of Sue's Indian Restaurant, I think his name is Raj. We met him once and he was also quite friendly and open. I dont know how frequently he is in the restuarant.

There is also a nice guy who owns the Graf Zeppliner restaurant on Saviciaus. We spoke to him frequently and he seemed very easy to speak with.

If you just go to a few restaurants, order a beer or a meal and try to speak to the owners you may get some very good advice from people who know the business well.

If you decide to open the bar/restaurant, come back here and let us know about it. We are always interested in trying out new places, but with our new baby, we don't get out as often as we would like.

By the way, you know what is missing here? A good restaurant which offers quality, Vegas style, dinner shows. I bet it would not be very expensive to offer that, and it might really bring in customers.