Downers Grove Restaurant Pulls Russian Booze To Support Ukraine

DOWNERS GROVE, IL — Andrius Bucas was 14 years old when Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union. He remembers the devastating Soviet response that followed.

Bucas, the owner of Grand Duke’s, a Lithuanian restaurant that has been in Downers Grove for the past three years after moving from Summit, said the footage of last week’s attack on Ukraine brought back many painful memories.

Three days later, he made the decision to pull Russian-made Beluga vodka and other alcoholic beverages from the restaurant’s menu as a way of showing support for his business’s Ukrainian customers.

Russian beers, including Baltika Russian, were thrown away and orders for more were canceled, Bucas told Patch on Tuesday. Instead, more Ukrainian beers, vodka and brandy will be ordered, and half of the proceeds from the sale of the beverages over the next month will be sent to Ukraine, he said.

The restaurant had always offered Ukrainian alcohol, but he said now the decision of what Grand Duke's offers is more intentional after the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I know it’s not going to change too much,” Bucas said Tuesday. “We’re not that big, and I know it’s just the beer or whatever. But it was something more for our customers and our clientele because we have a lot of Ukrainian friends and customers, so we decided it’s just a good thing to do.”

Wheeling-based liquor distributor Intertrade recently decided to stop offering Russian beers, wines and spirits to its large customer base, WGN reported Monday. On Tuesday, the city of Chicago announced that it is suspending its Sister City relationship with Moscow while the war in Ukraine is ongoing.

“While this is not a decision I enter into lightly, we must send an unambiguous message: we strongly condemn all actions by the Putin regime,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday, according to the Chicago Tribune. “This suspension will be upheld until the end of hostilities against Ukraine and the Putin regime is held accountable for its crimes. We must continue to support freedom-loving people everywhere and ordinary Russians in their desire to be free.”

Bucas said many of the Russian beers were popular with guests, but he said that thinking back to 1991 when Lithuania was attacked helped him decide to pull the beverages from Grand Duke’s alcoholic offerings.

Bucas remembers being a teenager watching as Soviet tanks entered his home country after Lithuania separated from Russian control. Unlike today, there was no cable news coverage at the time to show the world what was happening, which left much of the world in the dark as to what was happening.

“We were in that same situation (as Ukraine),” Bucas told Patch. “We had sirens going off all night, the tanks were rolling over the people, and (last week) just brought back all of those memories. We don’t want the old Soviet Union back, and we’re kind of scared that Lithuania might be next because it’s always in Putin’s dreams to have the Baltic States back.”

He added: “It’s just a remembrance of everything that happened to us — a flashback from the past. You see the people dying, kids dying, and it’s something you wish you never saw. It’s the 21st century, and it’s just kind of crazy and kind of sad.”

Bucas said his restaurant, which was in business for 13 years in Summit before moving to Downers Grove, will continue not to serve Russian alcohol as long as the war in Ukraine continues, although he knows that could be an extended period.

“It’s going to be a while,” Bucas said. "But this is just the decision we made."