Along Warsaw's ul. Poznańska

Warsaw is becoming trendier by the day; new bars and restaurants are continually popping up - and unlike the unstable 1990s, the there's less of the 'creative destruction' whereby today's hippest hangout becomes a desert tomorrow and collapses the day after. Good places tend to stay and prosper and attract imitators.

Round the corner from my office is ul. Poznańska, a good example of Warsaw's trendification. Check it out on Google Maps; lots is happening here, especially around the junction with ul. Wilcza (where the Ganesh Indian restaurant has recently become Dwie Trzecie, a 'Mediterranean fusion' place). And two doors down ul. Wilcza is Jedna Trzecia, a multi-tap bar specialising in Belgian and Czech ales.

Today, craving some good hummus, I popped into Beirut on Poznańska, famously across the road from Tel Aviv (though you may be forgiven for not seeing the latter as the kamienica in which it is located is currently shrouded in dust-covers for a facelift). While the portions at Beirut are not large, nor the prices cheap, the food is tasty and the place - dead hip. With one wall covered with punk rock and New Wave LP covers (including - hey! The Lurker's Fulham Fallout and Robert Gordon's album recorded with Link Wray (I've been looking for this online for years) Beirut is sew hip.

Below: Beirut to the left, Tel Aviv across the road. The street indeed does have a non-Polish, Mediterranean flavour, shaded with acacia trees, pavements overrun with tables and chairs.

Below: the architecture is an eclectic mix of the brand-new, the new, the lovingly restored late 19th Century kamienice, and one place in a dreadful state (number 19). And everywhere a bar or restaurant to suit all tastes and pockets, from SmaczneGo to Delizia.

Below: a verse, written in felt-tip marker on a fibreboard panel boarding over a broken doorway. It rhymes, but does not scan particularly well, but it conveys the hipster character of the street:

On Poznańska
On Tuesday night
Some sweat
With fear.
As here, at no.14,
Beside the bin,
The parish priest
Meets the Devil.
They eat hummus in Tel Aviv
After which in Beirut
Over a beer
They play cards till dawn
For the barman's soul...

Old and new, rustic and urban, the changing face of Poland manifests itself on Poznańska.

A propos of religion, tomorrow is Corpus Christi. Unlike Christmas, Easter, or even Pentecost, I have no idea what this religious feast is about, or its meaning or significance. Still, a day off work (I have so much to do another Saturday in the office will be called for to compensate).