Bridgeport may seem like an unlikely location, but Healthy Food Restaurant is the oldest Lithuanian restaurant in the world, claims its owner, Grazina Biciunas-Santoski (you can call her Gina). It’s been open since 1938, which makes it “older even than in Lithuania,” she says. “I put it on my card, and no one has challenged it.” In the 11 years since Lithuania claimed independence from Russia, she explains, most of the older restaurants there have gone out of business. Even a nightclub she remembers in Kaunas called the Metropolis–which was converted into a Chinese place, then a pizza place–is now being turned into a hotel, leaving this family-run gem to claim the title.
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Of course, even without that distinction this little spot on South Halsted would be well-known. Gina remembers being struck by the charm of the place when her parents bought it from the original owners in 1960. “There used to be a very strong Lithuanian area here, especially in the turn of the century,” she says. Through the years, as the Lithuanian community has dispersed to other areas, Healthy Food has become “like a little island”–one where the food keeps drawing crowds.
So if a majority of the menu is heavy on meat, potatoes, sour cream, and butter, why is it called “healthy food”? Gina had a chance to talk with the original owners a few years back, who were pleased with how she’s kept it. “They told me they didn’t know what to call it. They reasoned that they served good food and it was healthy, so they originally called it Sveikas Maistas, or ‘healthful foods.’ But that’s such a mouthful, so it became modified over the years. People ask me why don’t I give it a more Lithuanian-sounding name. The name has been around since 1938. Everybody knows it, so why change it?”
Healthy Food is at 3236 S. Halsted, 312-326-2724.
