Cafe Lenkiewicz

Cafe Lenkiewicz is a long-running Torun confectioner with a cafe attached. It pairs good coffee with cakes and its own gingerbread specialities, which ties it neatly to the city's piernik tradition. Torun has baked gingerbread for more than 600 years, and a cafe that makes its own is a fitting place to try it fresh.

Coffee and cake is the reason to come. The house gingerbread is the local speciality worth trying, alongside the wider counter of cakes. The exact range changes with the season and the day, so look at what is set out and ask what is made in house.

This is a traditional confectioner and cafe rather than a modern coffee bar. It suits a slow sit-down with a pot of coffee and something sweet, and it works well as a mid-morning or afternoon break from the Gothic Old Town.

Good for anyone who wants to taste Torun gingerbread with a proper coffee, and for travellers who prefer a classic cafe to a speciality roaster. To learn how the gingerbread is made by hand, pair a visit with the Living Museum of Gingerbread.

The cafe is in the Old Town, within a short walk of the Old Town Market Square and its Gothic town hall. That puts it in the middle of the main sights, easy to fold into a day of walking. The Torun guide sets out what else is close.

The business traces back to 1945, when Stanisław Lenkiewicz opened a bakery, and it has held its Toruń address at Wielkie Garbary 14 since 1950 (cafe.lenkiewicz.net). It moved from bakery to confectionery around 1960 and has made its own ice cream from that period onward.

The gingerbread side is its own operation, the Fabryka Pierników brand, which bakes to the firm's original methods and recipes; among the styles Stanisław Lenkiewicz was known for is a variety called 'krajanki' (cafe.lenkiewicz.net, pierniki.lenkiewicz.net). The current counter and seasonal range are best checked on the day, and opening hours through the cafe's own channels.