A good Polish dinner once meant scouring
the shops for fresh ingredients and spending hours over the stove.
But today's busy urbanites are likelier to find culinary delight in restaurants
than in their own kitchens.
Poles are becoming better-off amid a dynamically growing economy. Longer
working hours and hectic schedules also mean less time to prepare the
home-cooked meals their grandparents slaved over.
Last year Poles spent a record 4.8 billion euros in restaurants and cafes, some
50 per cent more compared to the previous year, according to statistics from
Euromonitor International.
The figures are meager compared to Germany or France, but they signal an
industry boom in a country where eating out was once reserved for special
occasions.
New restaurants are springing up nationwide, and offering a wider variety of
meals. Warsaw alone boasts anything from a Chicago-style pub to 'Little
Serbia.'
Daniel Kolecki, manager of a Sphinx restaurant on Nowy Swiat, says he's noticed
four new eateries recently open up on this trendy shopping street in Warsaw.
But there are still too few restaurants in the capital, he added, and the
market is wide open.
"With rising incomes, people can afford to go out more often. Not only are
there more clients, but they're ordering better meals," Kolecki said.
"About half of the clients are young, working people."
Kolecki says older people are harder to convince, and often come to have dinner
with the family. They're also used to cooking at home, he said, and can rarely
afford lavish meals on retirement incomes.
Restaurant A. Blikle, founded in 1869, has its share of older regulars, but
sales director Ewa Katczuk says there are more younger clients who'd rather
drop in for an atmospheric half-hour lunch than eat fast food.
"There's more clients who don't have time to cook at home," she said,
"and mostly they're better-off."
But the new trend towards eating out isn't only hitting sit-down restaurants:
fast food is also booming.
Taco Bell - who pulled out of Poland in the uncertain 1990s - is thinking about
making a comeback, the daily Dziennik recently reported, while Starbucks is
slated this year to open its first Polish location.
In the past few years, small kebab joints also began appearing in the capital
and now dot its main streets like hot dog stands in Manhattan.
Many are staffed by Middle Easterners, who for a few zloty offer hurried
Varsovians falafel and soda combos.
Tatiana Sarakhman, of Kebab Faraon, says clients have been steady in her six
years working the fast-food industry, but more competition is making owners try
harder towards tastier fares, dpa reported.
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