‘Food & Drink’ Archives
Thyme For Supper
STB visit Berlin's brand new Thyme Supperclub My booking at brand new underground restaurant Thyme Supperclub led me recently to a cobbled side street in a residential part of Prenzlauer Berg. The hosts, Caroline and Tobias, live on the third floor of a Berlin Altbau home that has customary wing doors and high ceilings, but which has been customised and extended to include not just an expansive home but an art workshop (Tobias, from Stuttgart, is a hobby artist) and office. Tobias - [...]
Confiserie Orientale
A sweet new Turkish shop in Mitte… Observant Mitte regulars may have noticed a new Turkish shop appear recently on Linienstrasse, just across the road from popular bar-restaurant Schwarzwaldstuben. While 'Turkish shop' in Berlin traditionally means a new restaurant or imbiss, Confiserie Orientale is about as far away from a run-of-the-mill kebab stall as it's possible to get. The store sells high quality Turkish Delight (or Lokum, as they’re traditionally known) alongside diverse [...]
Pinke Panke
A wonderful kids farm and educational playground right next to one of Pankow’s loveliest parks… The evocatively titled Pinke Panke is a fantastic place to take your restless kids for a morning or afternoon - whatever their age. Inaugurated as an educational playground project for local school children back in 1991, the Kinderbauenhof enjoys an atmospheric location right on the river Panke, adjacent to the lovely Bürgerpark. Run by a mix of qualified social workers and volunteers, [...]
Winterfeldtplatz Market
Schöneberg’s charming Winterfeldtplatz is home to one of Berlin’s best farmers markets... On most days of the week Schöneberg’s Winterfeldtplatz, named after the Prussian General Hans Karl von Winterfeldt, is a pleasant, leafy square, inhabited mostly by roller-skaters, strolling locals and the occasional knot of tourists. The majority of the square was destroyed in the war but it still possesses a curious architectural mix, from the 60s-style social housing that runs along one [...]
Cafe Hilde
Book readings, hearty Irish breakfasts and home-made cakes... My first encounter with Café Hilde was on a dark and wet winter night back in January. The streets outside glistened with snow and rain rapped at the windows like a lunatic insect as I sipped wine with friends and listened in hushed silence to a voice from the past. The voice belonged to Orson Welles – to a 1938 radio broadcast of him reading from Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness to be precise. Welles' voice, wrapped [...]
Volkspark Friedrichshain
Everyone loves a good park. Volkspark Friedrichshain is one of Berlin’s finest… Even by Berlin’s high standards, the Volkspark Friedrichshain stands out as one of the city’s special green spaces. Established a century and a half ago to commemorate the centennial of Frederick the Great's accession to the throne, it gives good history, swathes of Liegewiese (sunbathing areas), an abundance of leisure opportunities and more than its fair share of interesting landmarks. Casually [...]
The Badeschiff
Looking to beat the summer heat? Try Berlin's Badeschiff - a swimming pool in the Spree... Badeschiff - literally "bathing ship" - opened in 2004 as an art project organized by Berlin's Stadtkunstprojekte (City Art ProjectSociety), the AMP Architectos (Teneriffa), architect Gil Wilk and local artist Susanne Lorenz.The initial aim was to enliven city life along what was then a long-neglected stretch of the Spree, between the former Osthafen (East harbour) and Flutgraben, a small [...]
The Barn
A chic and health-conscious Slow Food hub in the heart of Berlin Mitte… The Barn isn’t a difficult place to find if you’re strolling along pretty Grosse Hamburger Strasse. Just look out for the bales of hay outside - a somewhat incongruous sight in this trendy downtown part of Berlin Mitte. The hay is symbolic as well as ornamental. As befits a place called The Barn located purposefully in the middle of a modern city, this small café – which opened just a few weeks ago - does a [...]
The Shy Chef
A slightly disappointing date with Berlin's underground dining scene... I first heard about Berlin’s Shy Chef around a year ago, when a friend enthused about an incredible, intimate dinner party they’d been to, where they met all these lovely people and ate really exquisite food...“all in the chef’s own lounge!" Even then the idea of ‘underground’ or ‘guerilla’ dining wasn't so new, nor was there a dearth of it in Berlin. For visitors or incoming residents to the city, [...]
Kunst Werke Institute For Contemporary Arts
A jewel in Mitte's art scene crown... Berlin’s Auguststrasse isn’t short on galleries. This well known Mitte street is a main artery for contemporary art in the city, long ago earning the sobriquet “East Berlin's art mile” for its impressive wealth of independent galleries that line both sides of the street and show everything from sculpture and fine art to photography. Of all the street’s venues, the Kunst Werke Institute For Contemporary Arts at number 69 is perhaps the most [...]
