Throughout the inter-war years, he was a key figure in Warsaw literary and social life. He had a table reserved for him with leading Warsaw literary figures, such as Julian Tuwim and Jan Lechoń, at the mezzanine of the café . In a famous anecdote, Aleksander Wat recounts how, when Wat was imprisoned, by the government of the Second Polish Republic for his literary activities (he was the publisher of the crypto-communist magazine ), he received, in prison, a hamper of vodka and caviar from Wieniawa. The purpose of this story, in Wat's memoirs "My century", is to contrast his treatment at the hands of the Second Polish Republic with the vicious and barbaric treatment he was to receive in Soviet prisons during the war.