Army Veteran Brings a Euro Touch Downtown

In Latin, the word Lido means to take flight. In downtown Fayetteville, restaurant and nightclub 'Lidos, the Euro Spot' is doing just that.

Named after a restaurant that used to cater to celebrities and royalty of Russia and is currently expanding across the Baltic States, Lidos is owned by an Army veteran, Rodney Chamberlin, and his wife, Anya Chamberlin, an Army officer. Anya Chamberlin is from Latvia, on the Baltic Sea, and Anya’s mother, Zhaneta Kglja, has more than 45 years of experience with family recipes, ranging from eastern European to Slovak to Russian cuisine.

Rodney and Anya had dreams of owning their own restaurant and nightclub. So, it made perfect sense for the couple, who married in 2009, to open a restaurant and nightclub that served dishes with Kglja’s inspiration.

“At the start of business, my mother-in-law created the menu,” Rodney Chamberlin said. “All the dishes were hers. We did variations to her dishes, and some of them were her original recipes. Definitely, we couldn’t have done it without her.”

The Chamberlin’s journey to open Lidos in 2010 sounds like fate. They shared the dream of opening it, and it was the Army that brought them together.

Rodney, who served for nine years, was commissioned in 2002 through Army ROTC at Auburn University. He entered as a field artillery officer and was stationed at Fort Benning, Ga. Chamberlin was stationed in locations that included Korea, Fort Carson and Fort Bragg, his final duty station.

After a deployment to Iraq from late 2005 through 2006, Rodney started training for the Special Forces Qualification Course. He met Anya in 2007 when he was going through the Captain’s Career Course in Fort Benning, Ga. She had just finished Officer Candidate School and was transitioning from enlisted service to the officer core.

“The idea of the nightclub was there from the get-go,” Rodney Chamberlin said. “We had talked about our dreams and goals and saw that we had common goals. Within those was running our own nightclub.”

Following her return home from deployment in 2009, Anya married Rodney and the two went on a tour of the Baltic states and Eastern Europe. One of the stops was eating at Lido.

Chamberlin said the idea of Lidos then presented itself because Anya’s mother was a Russian chef.

“We saw these opportunities coming together at the right time and leaped at it,” Rodney said. “We decided that this was the right time to pursue our dreams.”

The couple decided for Anya to keep her Army career path. Rodney, a captain, finished his commitment with the Army and transitioned easily into his entrepreneurial role. Anya, who is stationed at Fort Benning, returns on weekends.

They chose Fayetteville because of its good economy.

“The economy in Fayetteville is very, very protected from national events,” Rodney said. “Anya came to visit one time during R and R and said, ‘There’s no recession here, not in Fayetteville.’”

The restaurant’s dishes include goulash, beef stroganoff, German pork schnitzel, and Russian-specific dishes. The Chamberlins are looking to expand the menu and add western European dishes that cater more to American tastes.

If nightlife is more of your flavor, Lidos has you covered for that, too. Around 10 or 11 each evening, the restaurant transitions into a night club. The facility has a dance floor and they maximize the floor space. Staff turns on a haze machine and laser lights. Of course, the largest crowds come out on Friday and Saturday nights, but many international university students visit on Thursdays.

Open everyday from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m., Lidos offers evening entertainment every night, like karaoke, a live DJ and live music once or twice a month. During June’s Fourth Friday, the business had a live accordionist who walked from table to table and played requests.

Along with being business owners and Anya’s Army career, the Chamberlins have a nine-month-old. Mother-in-law Zhaneta and Rodney switch back and forth, taking care of the baby. It’s a full-time job, Rodney said.

“It’s very, very time consuming, but it’s well worth it,” he said.