MENU.
The menu of Somm is reprinted every day at 16:00, because it includes only the freshest tapas prepared using micro-seasonal goods, and the owners encourage sharing those tapas in a group of visitors. I.e. they encourage ordering more different dishes and trying and enjoying sophisticated tastes. Thus visitors coming to Somm more frequently will find something new here every time.
In this place, an emotion is created by just enjoying exceptional appetizers and tasting assorted wine. Here, an appetizer is not cheese or meat cut into pieces. Tapas are prepared combining the tastes of different ingredients and using different methods of preparation – from marinating to frying.
In terms of frying – this place still has a stove using wood, and E. Lapinskas uses it as much as his imagination makes it possible. Therefore, it is not surprising that small frying-pans travelling from the stove directly to the visitors’ table are among the most popular choices at Somm.
Another popular section of choosing tapas – a raw bar. At Somm, you will find a wide selection of quality raw fish, seafood and meat snacks. If you place many different snacks on a plate, you will have a substantial dinner, however, you will try many different tastes during such a dinner. Thus if you wish to experience new gastronomic senses, which are, however, low-key (not “fine dining”), Somm is a perfect place for you.
CHEF.
Egidijus Lapinskas decided he wanted to be the chef of this place. Even though last year he wanted to just be called the chef-patron in his other restaurants (Time, Dine and Rise), i.e. help the chefs working in those restaurants with his experience and advice, when Somm was opened, he became its chef and again started cooking more.
The experience gained by E. Lapinskas before opening (with A. Darasevičius) four restaurants of his own (as well as a few snack-bars) is indeed extensive. He used to work in the kitchens of the well-known hotels in Lithuania as well as restaurants abroad.
His priority is a quality and fresh ingredient, the features of taste whereof are only highlighted in a subtle manner by the chef or emphasised using excellent garnishes. One of the mottos of the chef – if you can do something yourself, you’d better do it (for instance, smoke meat, clean fish, bake bread, mellow butter, cook a sauce, etc.).
SOMMELIERS AND A WINE LIST.
Just judging by its name, at Somm, you could expect at least one sommelier always present in a dining room, however, the place employs as many as 4 sommeliers, while two of them are ones of the best sommeliers in Lithuania. Narimantas Miežys, who is a winner of a number of competitions of sommeliers, even left a prestigious job at the restaurant Telegrafas of Kempinski because of this project. Arminas Darasevičius is the president of the Association of Sommeliers of Lithuania and a multiple-time winner of competitions. Silvija Umaraitė, also working at Somm, is a winner of the Young Sommelier competition and Andrejus Anisko, a promising sommelier, also works here.
It is not surprising, therefore, that this place is very strongly geared towards the culture of wine. The place has over 350 sorts of wine, and Narimantas can find each of them right away in a big wine refrigerator.
All the sommeliers can choose an assorted wine to go along dishes to ensure that the tastes of tapas will open up with new colours for the visitors. At this place, even the very profession of sommelier becomes a usual form of service for the visitors – after all, a sommelier should not necessarily work at an exclusive white-tablecloth restaurant! Their purpose is to help choose the best wine option according to the customer’s pocket. While the prices for a bottle of wine here start with EUR 25.
In terms of the wine list, here it is one of the most extensive in Lithuania and includes wines from Israel, India and Lebanon as well as Lithuanian wines and stable classical wines from the well-known regions of the Old World. Every day, Somm offers about 20 sorts of wine sold by glass as well as a few sorts of champagne sold by glass, while the full menu of champagne includes as many as 56 sorts!
