Well-known restaurateur Magda Gessler has opened a new venue called Dom Restauracyjny Krokodyl in the heart of Warsaw's Old Town.
It is capable of hosting special events such as parties, banquets, business conferences and wedding receptions. The Krokodyl offers elegance in classic interiors with a history. Located in the historical Wójtowska, Wilczkowska and klucznikowska tenement buildings, the venue has the three most beautiful rooms in Warsaw, called Sala pod Arkadami (Room Under the Arcade), Kominkowa (Fireplace Room) and Krokodyl (Crocodile Room). The first is divided into three sections by pillars and has been decorated in Renaissance style, with a fireplace in the middle part. It boasts 18th-century chandeliers and wall lamps as well as cream-colored curtains made of soft fabric. The curtains feature genre scenes that are replicas of canvases by Pierre Frey.

The Fireplace Room is also designed in Renaissance style and includes an eye-catching beamed ceiling and period-style fireplace. The curtains are made of natural silk in wine-red and purple tones. The entrance to the Crocodile Room is different, leading through a double Gothic portal built in the early 16th century. The windows overlook the Old Town Square and offer a view of colorful tenement houses and the Warsaw mermaid.

In the early postwar years, Warsaw's best dances and balls were held on this site. The ground-floor entrance led into the Krokodyl restaurant complex. To this day there is a metal crocodile symbol over the entrance. The cellars used to be home to a restaurant stylized to look like a Gothic inn, while the ground floor was a coffee bar.

MR