Windows to the past
As Warsaw continues to modernize, nostalgia for communist-era milk bars, Brutalist buildings and neon art is thriving in this capital city. Take a look.
WARSAW — Call it nostalgia, or call it making do. Though Warsaw has modernized since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, it’s also in the middle of a retro revival.
The city boasts slick new shopping malls, architecturally daring office towers and striking new hotels, of course, but instead of tearing down blocky, Brutalist communist-era buildings, locals are sprucing them up, making them look almost cheery.
The much-derided East German-made Trabant cars (Time magazine called them the “car that gave communism a bad name”) and Cold War-era military transport vans now shuttle tourists. Neon signs from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s time, once destined for the trash heap, are now treasured in a museum.
Then there are the restaurants. A variety of cuisines unimaginable in the old Eastern Bloc (sushi bars, Turkish kebabs, Italian trattorias, Vietnamese pho, French patisseries and — heaven help us — American fast food) has blossomed, but a class of restaurants that was a staple of communist days is enjoying a resurgence.
Milk bars, or bar mleczny in Polish, are a reminder of the days when meat and fresh vegetables were scarce and state-run restaurants served cheap eats — mostly starches, root vegetables and, as the name implies, dairy.
Although milk bars now serve a wider variety of foods (and the silverware is no longer chained to the table), the concept remains: inexpensive cafeteria-style establishments that feature comfort foods — soups, pirogi (dumplings) and, literally, a meat-and-potatoes menu.
For many Poles, the establishments are a hearty, homey throwback. For students and wallet-watchers, they’re cheap eats (main courses top out at about 12 zlotys, or about $3.10), and for visitors, they’re a cultural adventure.
I checked out four on my visit in July, and — because the meals are meant to be quick — I also checked out worthwhile nearby spots to visit before or after each meal.