Visited on 6/9/2012
While being in
Poland for 3 weeks after not visiting for almost a decade I told
myself I'd visit at least one club while here in order to get a feel of how
things go down. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised.
The club I visited
while being in Kraków (Cracow) was Cień Klub on in short Cień (Shadow). It's
located a few hundred feet from the Rynek Krakowski (Old Town Square of Cracow)
like most clubs in Kraków considering the Town Square is where all the tourists
go. Cień is located in a 17th Century Presidential
Palace that has been gutted and transformed into a multi level club. Once you
walk in through the old metal French doors you enter the ground level space
that is a lounge/chill-room filled with a few couches lining one wall
about almost 2 dozen bean bag chairs and a Foosball table.
Given Euro 2012 is in full effect in Poland the chill room also had a huge
projector screen showing the Germany Portugal match. In the front of the room
you have a staircase going up (I’ll refer get back to that) while in
the back you have a staircase going downstairs.
Heading downstairs
you are encountered with the first of the 3, yes 3 downstairs bars and a tough
choice to make. If you head to your left into a separate room you get
one dance-floor with an attached smoking lounge and a connection to a
second bar with lots of room to sit and chill out. There's also a hallway
leading to a UNISEX yes unisex bathroom. I’ve never seen that before but it
works (there are no urinals just smaller individual stalls will doors from
floor to ceiling).
If you were to
head to your right from the first bar as you walked down the stairs, you enter
a second dance floor room and continuing to your right you get
another bathroom (didn't explore it) a VIP room a
small bar and another smoking lounge. Take the tour and
check it out yourself. Visually I think the club looked very nice with enough room
to move around so it doesn’t feel and a lot of places to sit and smoke.
Given that most of the action is the basement in gives it a different feel from
most Chicago clubs.
If you remember I
mentioned earlier there was also a staircase going upstairs from the main
floor's lounge. When you head upstairs you walk right into another dance floor (the
largest of the 3) with high ceilings and more lighting systems. (Due to limited
space don't expect anything too fancy downstairs in terms of lights).
You have a second coat room to your right and the dance floor is to your
immediate left. If you walk through the crowd you will walk into a very large
lounge area with white couches and white furniture set up with small tables
where you can place your drinks and bottles. Connected to that lounge is yet
another bar, the largest of all them in the club. It is lit up with
blue neon lights almost in a way to make sure you know where to go to get
boozed up. In the same room you have a chandelier hanging to add to the decor.
Prices in relation
to the US dollar are cheap as the $1 will give you 3.5 złote. A 500 ml bottle
of Vodka with our bottle service was 100 Złote (you do the math) If
we were told we would have gotten the 750ml for 150zlote. Adding to this discussion
about alcohol, Cień has its own brew called "Biała Śmierć" or White
Death which is a Spirytus type drink they make and sell by the bottle.
Surprisingly not a lot of people here tip so once you tip a
few zloty here and there you get more attention from the hostesses/bartenders.
Many girls filled this place the night of my visit and most want/like to dance,
but be warned the legal drinking age is 18, so I wouldn't be surprised if a few
under age ones slip between the cracks from time to time.
Music wise one of
the dance-floors in the basement played what could be best described
as Chicago house mixed with some 80s n 90s hits, with a steady beat pulsing the
whole night. If you wanted something more rhythmic to dance to the second
downstairs dance-floor had more of a euro feel and vocal music.
Upstairs with the largest dance-floor played the closest thing to top
40, but it is not our top 40, a lot more European artists are played with a mix
of Rhihanna and Pitbull type dance songs that all the girls dance and try to
sing along to.
All in all Cień is a decent place to visit when in Kraków. The
locals I was with had mixed reviews about this place as they had their own
favorite clubs (CoCo and Base just to name some) they'd rather be at, but my
taste in music was also different from theirs so we had to agree to disagree.
All in all Cień is a decent place to visit when in Kraków. The locals I was with had mixed reviews about this place as they had their own favorite clubs (CoCo and Base just to name some) they'd rather be at, but my taste in music was also different from theirs so we had to agree to disagree.
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