photo: Auste Skrupskyte
Setting out to discover the best places one can enjoy their cup of specialty coffee, always-busy Kreuzberg was a stop we enjoyed making, full of cute little cafes, offering coffee that blew us away. Once you find yourself around there, make sure you don’t miss out on these places.
La Lucha, photo: liz_b.
Berlin never stops to deliver us new places to explore and fall in love with. Each year an abundance of new things pop up all over town, putting undiscovered areas on the map and adding new spice to already established ones.
The gastronomic newcomers of this years are particularly exciting and diverse and we had a bit of a hard time to choose the ones we want to present you here in our new guide. We especially love the fact that the style of kitchen is becoming more experimental and bringing some new trends into town, but also that interior and ambience continues to evolve.
Here’s our selection of the most exciting new restaurants in Berlin that you should check out in 2017.
Berlin is many things, but undeniably, Berlin is pretty damn gay. The capital is so famous as a vibrating LGBTQ hotspot with countless bars, clubs, parties, different places, different styles, scenes and people that it can all become pretty confusing. You have something for everyone here, and that can be a bit overwhelming at times. So, we put together a little list of places a Berlin gay should know.
Wondering how to spend the weekend if the weather does you a favor and is nice ever again in the future? Look no further as we’ve gathered for you some of our favorite cafes and restaurants by the water; because, what’s a better summer setting than this? Whether a lake or a riverside, these places are absolutely perfect for summer strolls, and God knows how we miss those. So next chance the weather gives you, grab your friend, your boo, your mom, and be where life is nice! You will find us there sipping on our beer, letting our toes catch some vitamin D.
”Another Winter” – Aleksandar Duravcevic, Feb/March 2017
Berlin in recent years has become known for the space and freedom it gives emerging artists to create and find their artistic voice. Meanwhile, more and more art galleries make their way into the art market to represent and exhibit their work; one of our favorite ones we always love to visit is König Gallery in Kreuzberg.
König Gallery was founded by Johann König in 2002. His innovative spirit showed from the very beginning, when, at the age of 21 he invited his artist friend Jeppe Hein to install a wrecking ball in the gallery, destroying chunks of its wall as it moved about the space, and among the viewers. His innovative spirit, years later, and the urge to move away from the ‘white cube’, had him acquire an old unused church and turn it into an art space. St. Agnes is a Postwar massive concrete building of Brutalist style, designed by Werner Düttmann and built in the 1960s. A former catholic church, which however was out of service since 2004, found new life in 2015 when König re-opened it as the second location for his gallery, (now serving as the main space) while he also resides with his wife Lena in the church’s former rectory.
At a time when financial profit is all that cities are driven by, the Prinzessinnengärten seem to be a green oasis that gives us hope that, as long as there are active people creating such projects, the future might not be so bleak. Nomadisch Grün (Nomadic Green) launched Prinzessinnengärten (Princess gardens) as a pilot project in the summer of 2009 at Moritzplatz in Berlin Kreuzberg, a site which had been a wasteland for over half a century. Along with friends, activists and neighbors, the group cleared away rubbish, built transportable organic vegetable plots and reaped the first fruits of their labour.
The ultimate idea behind this project is for all unused spaces in cities to be turned to green urban farming spaces where locals produce their own healthy food. In this way, the microclimate would be better, there would be less CO2, and the biological diversity would increase. This project promotes community and aspires to be a place where a new style of urban living can emerge, where people can work together, relax, communicate and enjoy locally produced vegetables. Since more and more people are living in cities than rural areas, it becomes important that there is change towards a more sustainable way of living, eating and moving.
photos: Thomas Kakareko
Refinery High End Coffee, the international, multi-roaster specialty coffee bar that we love for a ton of reasons (also featured in our coffee guide), gave us one more by opening a retail store as well.
Tansel and Bora opened Refinery in Berlin in 2015, and with it they introduced us to an excellent coffee experience; since then, their cafe near Friedrichstrasse has become a locals and visitors’ favourite. Focused on the highest quality coffee from all over the world (currently serving Norway’s beloved Tim Wendelboe), it also offers amazing seasonal dishes, savory and sweet.
If you were asked to imagine Berlin as an ice cream, what image would you have for it? Exactly. Full-on hardcore, All-black-everything, seemingly unapproachable, but actually tasting the sweetest. This idea of putting Berghain-friendly ice cream into a cone was realized by Black Poodle Ice Cream Club on Schlesische Straße back in 2017, and we couldn’t contain ourselves – we actually can’t wait to match it with our outfit while waiting in that long queue.
Now in 2018, we had to notice that the Black Poodle had disappeared and the place was suddenly Vanille & Marille – a beloved local ice cream chain. Our fear that this amazing black ice cream had vanished was luckily not confirmed as Vanille & Marille still offer this flavor, yeay!
If you stroll around Schlesi, do NOT miss out on trying this super tasty AND stylish ice cream. I guarantee it’ll become your favorite!
Being one of the most popular districts of Berlin it comes as no surprise that Kreuzberg has one of the most diverse and pulsating gastronomic scenes of Berlin. There are some typical hotspots here such as Paul-Linke-Ufer, Oranienstraße, Wiener Straße and the area around Schlesisches Tor that are full of amazing restaurants and bistros with a variety of foods that offer something for everyone’s taste. But today we want to highlight an area that is a little bit under the radar but has some great food spots that you should definitely look into: I’m talking about Prinzenstraße.
Thanks to the dinner event series 3/6 Dreieck Dinner I was able to experience three of the most interesting restaurants in this area and all in the course of one evening and one menu. Instead of just going to one restaurant and eating all courses there how about taking courses in different places that are close by? This is pretty much the concept of the Dreieck Dinner.
After we’ve already introduced you to our favorite breakfast places in Neukölln, Friedrichshain, Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg we’re now continuing our district series with the most popular district of Berlin: Kreuzberg. Of course an area so diverse also has a breakfast offering that comes in all its variations from trendy to traditional. There’s something for everyone!