QUEERWARSAW
Amigos
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The Spartacus International Gay Guide list of places mentions three spots in Warsaw: Alhambra cafe, Antyczna cafe and Ambasador restaurant. Decent places to drop by, have a chat and perhaps make a new acquaintance. The Alhambra manager feels pity for the poor sods and explains to the staff: “it’s a sort of like being ill”. The staff women try their best not to show their strongest disgust. These are a polite and well-bred clientele after all, as if apologetic for the very fact they exist. The Antyczna manager, on the other hand, is cool but amiable. She tries to get rid of the odium of being included in the guide which results in less eager visits to the place recently. It is Ambasador that makes you feel at home at night. Red dimmed light among boudoir-like walls, soft movements, dulcet eroticism. Masculine charm seems fancy and cattish – and the outward fanciness binds and helps leave daily anxities behind.
The most successful in gathering queer party was a bar hidden behind a curtain in Ambasador. The end of 1980s saw a clear-cut division into “queens from Trakt” and “queens from Ambasador”, the two most expensive among homo-friendly venues. One of our interlocutors recalls that when we transferred from Trakt to Ambasador we were hollered at: “There come queens from Trakt!”.
13. Ambasador restaurant in 1990s
See also: ▶ Alhambra, ▶ Kopciuszek
14. Ambasador restaurant today
Amigos club, 44a Rozbrat Street, closed
The early 2000s saw the difficulty that leaders of the post-communist left-wing parties had with full and unanimous support of LGBT rights. Strangely enough, the building that served as the headquarters of the main Polish left-wing party SLD [Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej - Democratic Left Alliance] housed Amigos, a gay bar that was a rather unsuccessful and short-lived enterprise. Its elaborate decor was made up of a gray panelling decorated with fluorescent patterns that were supposed to give it
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