Departures' Guide to Berlin
Germany’s capital has seen war and division, reunification and rapid development. In its latest incarnation, it’s still an exciting work in progress.
For the past few years, any city that reinvents itself—any spot that appears on the scene as the creative circuit’s next stop—gets called “the new Berlin.” But as it turns out, Berlin itself is still the new Berlin. Like New York, London, Los Angeles, the city is in constant flux: Neighborhoods rise and fall, restaurants and galleries open and close, shops come and go. “The city changes constantly, tremendously so, every year,” says Michael Fuchs, a contemporary art dealer with galleries in Berlin and New York.
And while it’s true that the past has a profound presence here, so much so that one can practically feel it, this history also grants the place a sort of tabula rasa. “After the war, after the Wall, we had nothing left,” say Sam Frenzel, who won the Designer for Tomorrow award at last year’s Berlin Fashion Week. “It’s sad in one way but good in another. No tradition holds us back, so we’re not afraid to take new steps in different directions.”
Indeed, an endless influx of the new—not least of all the rise and gentrification of the former East and the arrival of an international creative class—has continued unabated since the Wall came down, more than 20 years ago. And now the city’s choice restaurants, top hotels, and unique design shops can truly be said to rival those anywhere.
At Table
Berlin’s restaurant scene is vast and various, but a few key addresses go far. Among the newest Michelin-starred spots is Reinstoff (dinner, $70; 26 Schlegelstrasse; 49-30/3088-1214; reinstoff.eu) in Mitte, the first and now most gentrified neighborhood in the East. The seasonal tasting menus are exquisite, intensely flavored three-plus-hour affairs combining local ingredients with haute-cuisine technique and hints of molecular gastronomy—a liquid turned solid here, dehydration there. Metallic spheres hang from the ceiling of the sleek gray room; theatrical lighting subtly illuminates diners while spotlighting the food; and the smart service is Berlin’s friendliest.
Not too far away, the more casual Dos Palillos (dinner, $55; 53 Rosenthalerstrasse; 49-30/2000-3413), at the new Casa Camper hotel, does tapas-style Asian. Chef Albert Raurich ran day-to-day operations at Spain’s renowned El Bulli for ten years, and here he’s created 11- and 16-course dinner menus (lunch is à la carte on Saturdays), both prepared by seven cooks working in an open kitchen, with diners watching from a long bar counter.
For lunch and dinner, two of the most beloved spots remain the Paris Bar (dinner, $70; 152 Kantstrasse; 49-30/313-8052) in the West’s tony Charlottenburg neighborhood, and Borchardt (dinner, $75; 47 Französische Str.; 49-30/8188-6262) in Mitte. Both are more about the chic scene—art world and fashion types—than the food (bistro fare at the Paris Bar, Continental cuisine at Borchardt), though Borchardt’s Wiener schnitzel is excellent.
At dinner, a similar crowd fills Mitte’s Grill Royal (dinner, $95; 105B Friedrichstrasse; 49-30/2887-9288; grillroyal.com), which opened in 2007 on the River Spree. (There’s outdoor seating in the warmer months.) Co-owner and fine-art framer Stephan Landwehr’s connections bring in all the right beautiful people, giving the place the air of one of Keith McNally’s New York spots, Minetta Tavern, say. Food tends toward the simple French and American: It’s one of the best places in Berlin for steak, imported from the States and South America; and the shaved fennel salad with pears and pecorino must be had. Decor is late-seventies glam: deep reds and oranges, smoky mirrors, low-slung banquettes, contemporary art on every wall.
Finally there’s Backroom Cantina (dinner, $50; 11 Schiffbauerdamm; 49-30/2758-2070; tausendberlin.com), an underground spot behind the bar at one of the city’s top night spots, Bar Tausend—itself behind an unmarked door underneath the Friedrichstrasse metro stop. The restaurant, in steel and gunmetal gray, does two small, nightly, reservation-only seatings for its Latin and Asian plates (Peruvian ceviche, pork buns). After hours, Tausend, which looks like the inside of a missile and has one of the strictest doors in the city, fills with a mix of twenty- to fortysomething hipsters and more straitlaced types, too. There’s live music and DJs, and the cocktails, designed by scruffy-cool bar chef Mario Grünenfelder (who bottles his own vodka), are old-fashioned and fantastic.
Other top-end favorites, all in Mitte, are Cookies Cream (dinner, $35; 55 Behrenstrasse; 49-30/2749-2940; cookies-berlin.de) for vegetarian, Il Punto (dinner, $65; 6 Neustädische Kirchstr.; 49-30/2060-5540; ilpunto.net) for Italian, and Margaux (dinner, $120; 78 Unter den Linden; 49-30/2265-2611; margaux-berlin.de) for French. The 50-year-old sausage stand Konnopke’s Imbiss (44A Schönhauser Allee; konnopke-imbiss.de), in nearby Prenzlauer Berg, is considered the best for currywurst, a local street-food specialty.
Tasting Notes
Chef Daniel Achilles, of Reinstoff, is all about details. His duo of veal incorporates three preparations of celery (purée, chips, and braised cubes), plus yuzu—an Asian citrus fruit—as both a jelly and a foam. The veal itself is free-range, milk- and grass-fed, and from a farm just outside Berlin.
