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== Tourist-Gastronomic Establishment ==
It wasn't until the second half of the 19th century that the frsti first restaurants began to open in Cracow. Some of them have had their ups and downs, but still operate under the same names and at the same addresses as over a hundred years ago. Hawełka, Wentzl, the hotel restaurants at Pod Różą, Pollera, Grand…
[[File:Jan Matejko - Uczta u Wierzynka 1877.jpg|thumb|upright|left|This is how Jan Matejko, in 1877, imagined guests arriving at the banquet at Wierzynek's -- on the opposite side of the Grand Square to where the restuarant bearing his name is now located.]]
What about Wierzynek? Well, the history of this restaurant dates back all the way to… 1947. This is when Kazimierz Książek open opened the restaurant in the Morsztyn House at no. 16, Grand Square (Rynek Główny 16). It's said that it was from Dr. Jerzy Dobrzycki, head of the Cracow History Museum, that he got the idea to name restuarant "Pod Wierzynkiem" ("At Wierzynek's").<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = Styl.pl
| nazwisko r = Leśnicki
}}</ref>
Unfortunately for Kazimierz Książek, the communist regime was already beginning to solidify its grip on Polish economy. Between 1948 and 1951 (different sources give different dates) the restaurant was nationalized and rechartered as the Wierzynek State Tourist-Gastronomic Establishment. You might think that an ennobled patrician wouldn't have been an ideologically appropriate namesake for an a state-owned eatery in a people's republic. Yet, in this case (as in many others), nationalism had the upper hand over socialism. For the Nazi Germans, Nikolaus Wirsing was German enough to let them rename Senate Street (ulica Senacka) in Cracow's Old Town to Wirsing Street (Wirsingstraße).<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = Krakauer Zeitung
| rozdział = Neuregulung innerhalb des Wohn- und Geschäftsgebietes der deutschen Bevölkerung – Namen geschichtlicher Erinnerung
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In the People's Republic of Poland, the Wierzynek restaurant was synonymous with Old Polish luxuries. This was were the few hard-currency tourists were directed to when they asked for the best restaurant in town and where international delegations were invited to sample communist Poland's take on fine dining.
W Polsce Ludowej Wierzynek był synonimem staropolskiego luksusu. To tutaj kierowano nielicznych dewizowych turystów, gdy pytali o najlepszą restaurację w mieście, i tutaj też zapraszano zagraniczne delegacje, by zakosztowały peerelowskiego wykwintu. Jak wspominał Edward Szot, długoletni dyrektor restauracji, rodzina Kennedych zajadała się tu eskalopem wołowym, George H.W. Bush konsumował comber z sarny i roladę ze schabu, Fidel Castro dostał czekoladę z Pewexu, a najwięcej kłopotu słynącemu z dziczyzny lokalowi przysporzył wegetarianin Jawaharlal Nehru.<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = Przekrój
