QUEERWARSAW
„„
Koêla Pub
Kopciuszek cafe was once in its heyday. It was a favourite meeting spot of the local bohemians mingled with machers from the black stock exchange and girlfriends and boyfriends of artists. However, in those times, even the fact that there was a lit and warm cafe in Warsaw during winter was a reason enough to be joyful. In those times some night clubs at Jerozolimskie Avenue would open cafe-gardens in summer and become world famous thanks to the moon that would hang over the dancing crowds as a lamp in a lace made of burned walls, ruins hanging over their heads, empty and charred windows, showing a stretched sail of silvery navy-blue sky*).
„„
Finally, we would like to quote the words of Olgierd Budrewicz, a journalist: In the first post-war years the symbol of Warsaw was the Sigismund Column, which in fact disappeared, and Kopciuszek, which was there indeed. Where have those times gone! How fragile fame is and how ungrateful the human memory!
See also: ▶ Alhambra, ▶ Ambasador
Koêla Pub 10/12 Koêla Street, now closed
Le Madame was not the only place that marked with the presence of gay people
in the New Town area of Warsaw. Let us go back to 1990s. Just nearby the future Le Madame, in a basement of the building on 10/12 Koźla Street was Koźla Pub, known as Kozły [Billy-goats]. The picture shows the entrance to its inner yard. Let us give the voice to Krzysztof Tomasik, who enjoys researching homosexuality of Polish icons and did enjoy his times at Kozły:
„„
Gay and lesbian clubs in Poland are typically short-lived. None of the places that functioned when I first entered the gay club scene, at the beginning of the 1990s, exist today. Kozły, as the club near the today defunct Wars Cinema was nicknamed, played an important role in those days. When I got there for the first time in April 1997, the bar had been running for over four years and had its regular clientele. This was indeed quite a climatic place, whose limited spaces forced greater closeness between customers, and encouraged to get to know new people. The club was theoretically open from 5 pm, but when you arrived too early you'd ring the bell, and a bouncer (always the same) always turned up at the door. He decided whether to admit someone or not. It wasn't door-selection, it was about safety. From time to time new gossips spread about gay people being battered, or about (less-than-peaceful) gangs of skinheads waiting outside for the gay people.
*) Free translation.
101