Ogrodowa Cafe

Some friends, Ola and Bruno, just opened a restaurant in central Warsaw, Ogrodowa Cafe. Their aim is to deliver fresh, interesting food to the neighborhood at reasonable prices. I can't get enough of the place...I eat there at least twice a week and am finding my dependency growing. Luckily, Ola and Bruno are warm and welcoming enablers.

Ola and Bruno, owners

What's interesting is Varwovians aren't quite so enamored--yet. Ola (born in Poland, raised in the US) and Bruno (born and raised in Portugal) tell me that people often come in and exclaim that the menu is "weird." They don't see the usual Warsaw staples: fried meat, potatoes, pasta. But with a little prodding, these skeptics often try the food and find they love it.

Even though Warsaw is a developed European city, a certain level of sophistication hasn't quite taken hold. As Bruno joked last night, wealthy women come in with Gucci purses and don't know what risotto is. Ola and I were trying to figure out why this is: why does Warsaw lack the iconic sidewalk cafes which seem to define so many European cities? Do the people not want to eat interesting food? Or have they simply not been exposed to it enough to demand it?

There is the historical angle to consider. Warsaw has certainly been through a lot of regime and population change in the past several decades, making cultural evolution a bit...disjointed. With the major inflow of capital in recent years, development has happened rapidly, but it is oriented towards wealthy foreigners. Many of the best restaurants in Warsaw have a strong international clientele, and are quite expensive. Not exactly the best way to expose the local population to new flavors.

I love what Ogrodowa Cafe is trying to do. It fills a niche Warsaw didn't know it had, but I hope that people catch on soon and learn to embrace the novelty of it. One of my favorite experiences is eating there with my Polish friend, who has lived in Poland her whole life. Every time she comes to OC, she invariably eats something she's never had before, from peanut butter to split pea soup, to potato chips served alongside a sandwich (not a Polish practice, evidently). And she has loved each and every thing. While traditional Polish food is fine, what's the harm of trying something new every now and then, especially when it is so affordable?

Bruno, creating the delicious