FOOD HABITS (CANTEENS, RESTAURANTS, CAFES): CLIENTELE/IDENTITY CHECKS/ TIPPING / PRICES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500470170-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 27, 2011
• Sequence Number: 170
• Publication Date: May 3, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/27: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500470170-9
U.S. Officials Only
CONFIDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
SUBJECT Food Habits (canteens, Restaurants, Cafes): Clientele/
Identity Checks / Tipping / Prices
TM IS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DCPEM.1
Of THE UNITED STATES. WITHIN THE MEAN INO OF TITLE 16, SECTIONS 713
AND 711, OF THE 11.3. COD[. AS AMENDED, 'TS TRANSMISSION ON POOL.
LATI'JN OF ITS CONTENTS TO ON RECEIPT BY AN u HAUTHORICCD YCASON IS
PRDNIBI TIR IT LAS. TOE REPRO DUCT!OM OF T1111 IFORT_II PROHIBITED..
DATE DISTR..3 M 4y 1954
NO. OF PAGES 4L
NO. OF ENCLS.
SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
"There is -o rationing of food in Poland. Everybody is free to buy whatever
food he wants in any shop. The real limitations are price and the variety
and quality of the foods :'.n stock. The only shops with limited clientele
are the Kon_ suety, which cater to Array and UB personnel and high Communist
officials.
Canteens
3. "In consequence, there are also no restrictions on eating in public restau-
rants. The exception are restaurants and canteens run by state offices or
establishmente for their personnel.
4. "The system of eating in these canteens varies slightly with the enterprise,
but the principle is the seines the employees or workers who wish to eat
meals in the canteen, buy special coupons called Bloczki, to last a week or
a month. Usually someone from the personnel office F vial Kadr) goes all
over the enterpriflo collecting signatures on a list. T s 'gir uct be
approved by the chief of the personnel office, because,a certain part of the
cost of the meals is borne by the enterprise. This is why meals in canteens
are cheaper than elstlwhere. Depending on the category of the establishment
or enterprise, they cost between three anal aovon zlotys each. In important
offices, the canteens resemble elegant vestaurants. Workers' canteens in
factories are of course quite modest. Also depending on the category of the
enterprise, the food in either taken by the consumers themselves from a little
window leading to the kitchen, or served by waiters.
5. "The same system as in factories and r't'f'l.oce, eariots also in high schools and
universities, because those institutions u,re also considered 'irorking
establishments' (2Zak
U.S'. Offlolkle only
DI3TfIDUTION so
This report is for the use within the USA of bhe Intelligence oomponente of the Departments or
Agencies indicated above. It is not to be transmitted overseas without the concurrence or the
orlgin::"ing offloo through the Assistant Director of the Office of Collection and Dissemination, OIA,
50X1-HUM
50X1-HUM
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U ,s e t OFFIOZAL6 ONLY
6. In principle the right to eat in such canteens is limited to the personnel of
the respective enterprise. In practice this is not rigid. The wife of an ill
worker, who has bought his Blocz,ki for meals, may coue to the canteen and ask
permission to eat the lunch in her husband'- place. The canteen management
lets her do this without difficulties. The -rules are rigid if the enterprise
or office is out of bounds to all outsiders for 'official secret' reasons;
no one but the personnel may eat in those canteens. This is true of the
Polish Fire Service, where it is clearly stated that the canteen ..s 'for
Service personnel only'; the whole premises are restricted.
7. "The quality of the meals served in the canteens depends on the category of
the enterprise. It r_~p.y be said, generally that most canteens receive often
spoiled food products; cases of food poisoning among employees and workers
are comparatively frequent. Most factory canteens are run without hygienic
storage facilities.
Tipping
6. "If waiters serve meals in office or factory canteens, it is not the habit
to give them tips.
9. "In public restaurants the tipping habit is sternly discouraged by the Com-
munists, but it takes long to die. Man people tip the waiters to get better
RPry1e,f-_ bi)t they do it on the
Cafes and Restaurants
"Jq~G
10. "Professional and artistic circles no longer gather in a favorite cafe or
restaurant but in a club. Fof instance, the artists in larger towns have
Artists' Homes i. which cafes operate, I'j is the same with writers and journ-
alists. The pre-Wor? a. War II type of cafe which was frequented by painters,
writers or actors, and in which one often saw famous persons sitting at an-
other table, has now disappeared,. The members of professional clubs may
introduce guests to their cafes, uut the general public does not enter.
11. "The most expensive, luxurious cafes and restaurants are frequented primar-
ily by high state officials, UBofficers, army officers and speculators.
Ordinary people rarely enter there, if only because they cannot afford the
prices. If they do go, it is usually because they have some definite business
to settle with somebody who wishes to meet them in that particular cafe. But
all the time they feel uneasy, since they know that all patrons are under ob-
servation. Many of the waiters are. UB ,agents and as a rule all barmen are on
the UB payroll. c,ei,~n'c
Document Checks
12. "Controls by the police in restaurants do happen quite frequently. But it
must be remembered that unless the UB men come with a definite purpose of
arresting someone, they never divulge their official standing; they always
state that they are representatives-of some other institution, sometimes
quite fictitioust "rice control.' board or such like. This is because t"1
men have no riguL i;o present themselves as UB unless they make an arrest.
If they tell people they come from the UB, they may get five years in prison.
a control in a r%staurant in Qdansk. Three plain-clothes 50X1-HUM
men en ,om. One of the waiters, probably their man, posted himself
at the door. The three men approached one table after another, saying that
they were 'from the Trade. Union! and asking for identity papers. The control
was thus presented ae a check-up, on absenteeism. Such subturfuges are childish
because everybody knave that it is the U9.
U. S. OFFICIALS ONLY
CONFIAENTIU
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U. s. OFFICIALS ONLY
CONFID1 TIAL
Iii. If the UB inspectors find in a.restaurant, 'a.person who should not be there this person usually gets a 'warning' letter through the proper channels.`'``f Qt1
they find a client in the restaurant with no identity papers on him, they
arrest him and take him to the police station. If ,he has left his documents
at home., he is kept at the station until the UB men have gone to his home and
found the docum6nl 'oi' gotten them ?rom his family. Then he is usually releas-
ed with a proper warning hot to be so careless. in the future.. But it is abso-
lutely impossible for a man to be arrested and then released if he nas compro-
mising documents on his person. A personal search is carried out as a matter
of course, when a person is brought to a police station, If he has something
compromising in his pocket, he has 'had it'.
There is another kind of police control in restaurants. inspection of 'watches.
Sometimes a person wearing a foreign watch on his wrist is approached by someone
who wants to have a look at the watch and then asks for a certificate showing
that it has been cleared by the customs. If the person has no such certificate
the watch is confiscated on the spot.
Restaurant Prices
16. "Medium category restaurant on the Polish
Beefsteak, potatoes, onions
Portion of goose, with trimmings
17. "Cheap restaurant:
Dinner for three: a herring, g meat
drinks
coast: Zlotys
10
20
dish, a dessert and three
100
18. "First-class restaurant in Sopoty .(frgm a menu card):
Hors d'oeuvres:
Soups:
Entrees:
Herring in oil
1.35
Fish salad
5.05
Eggs in Tartars Sauce
2.05
F]gh .i+,yiYi'iihaiea
2.50
One tomato
1'.07-
A roll with butter
1.40
Clear beetroot soup
1.20
Cabbage soup
2.65
Cauliflower soup with croutons
3.60
Roast ribs with oabbage ::tind potatoes
7.65
Roast veal, two vegetables
7-95
Stuffed veal brains, French beans
7.85
Roast beef, two vegetables
9.40
Half spring chicken roasted,
cucun,er salad
20.15
Salmon grille, Tartare Sauce
22.60
Salmon saute in butter ,
20.65
Pike aauto in butter
11,75
Pike pane with carrots
12.65
Fried solo with cucumber salad,
potatoes
7.25
U. S. OFFXCIAL6 ONLY
CONFIDiU IAL
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'Vegetarian: Baked macaroni with cabbage
Fried eggs on tomatoes1 potatoes
Scrambled eggs, potatoes
Pancakes with cheese
Cauliflower with butter
French beans wi%%-' butter
Carrots and potatoes
Tomatoes saute
Omelette with tomatoes
Omelette with cauliflower
Vegetables: Cabbage
Carrots
Beetroots
Cucumber~Aalad with.vinegar and oil
Desserts: Omelette with berries
Plain omelette
Omelette with jam..
If the band is playing, 15% is added to the charge.
19. "Restaurant in the Grand Hotel of Oopoty:
Portion of eel
Herring in oil
Portion of ham
Liter of cherry brandy
for of 'bitter' vodka
ter of beet 'export' vodka
Carp, cream sauce
Pork outlet
Liver, two vegetables
Portion of chicken
Fruit p
Ice arjam:portion (c:mall)
A cup of beetroot soup (served late at
night after' many drinks)"
U. 2. OFFICIALS ONLY
CONFIDANT NTIAL
Zlotys
3.00
8.65
6.50
4.15
9 415
3.70
2.80
2.00
7.05
9.65
1.30
1.90
1.60
;?0,65
? 9.15.
5.05
7.05
15.00
6.00
15.00
120.00
160.00
200.00
20.00
20.00
20.00
25.00
5.00,
2.00,?-,.!"'
2.00''
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