INFRONT CAFE CULTURE 11 / COMMUNITY 15 / EURO 2012 14 / FILM 12 / LOCAL INTEREST 12 / MEDIA 12 / PRL 16 / QUOTE 15 / STATS 14 / TRANSPORTATION 14 / TRENDS 18
CAFE CULTURE
Off the Wall PHOTOGRAPH BY KEVIN DEMARIA
Long before the designer stores moved in, Plac Trzech Krzyży’s principal claim to fame was her cafes. Ever since late Tsarist times the area was something of a café hub, and this continued after WWII. Opened in 1954, Lajkonik (pl. Trzech Krzyży 16) was possibly the most celebrated. Attracting an artsy crowd, it wasn’t long before the aforementioned creatives got proactive in decorating their den with colorful caricatures. Among others, Konstanty Sopocko painted ‘Not Everyone in Paris Looks Good in a Negligee,’ a saucy piece of art featuring a stockinged hussy applying some lipstick. Jerzy Flisak added a pitchfork wielding devil, while Irena Kuczborska contributed a come-hither looking mermaid. Yet despite its latent historical value, Lajkonik was sold in 2003, and its new owners set about plastering over the murals. Another link to the past was severed – or so it seemed. Emerging as something of an unlikely hero, Starbucks took control of the premises earlier this year, and having cooperated with the Museum of Caricature to restore the wall art, reopened for biz a couple of months back.
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