‘Food & Drink’ Archives
Q&A: Cynthia Barcomi
A Q&A with Berlin 'Baking Queen' Cynthia Barcomi American ex-pat Cynthia Barcomi moved to Berlin in 1985 as a professional dancer. She opened up her first cafe - Barcomi’s - in Kreuzberg's Bergmannstrasse in 1994, which sold her own roasted coffee blend and home made cakes. A few years later she followed up with her Mitte branch, set in a beautiful ivy-covered courtyard close to Hackeschermarkt. Cynthia has also written three cookbooks full of her wonderful baking recipes... Where [...]
Anna Blume
Where flowers, cakes and poetry mingle harmoniously... Berliners love their bounteous breakfasts as much as their afternoon Kaffee und Kuchen - and any establishment that can offer both is justly venerated. So it is with Anna Blume, a Prenzlauer Berg institution that manages to combine a florist, bakery and cafe with impressive fluidity. Interior designer Thomas Seiffert has made good use of the fact the venue was named after a 1919 Kurt Schwitters poem: lines from the surrealist [...]
Prinzessinnengärten
Berlin’s newest urban garden has a royal name and a noble mission… Prinzessinnengärten, or Princess Gardens - is the romantic name of a not-very-romantic urban street in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, hidden away in an alternative enclave of Turkish culture and noisy traffic near the Moritzplatz roundabout. In the center of this largely unused and cluttered space, two ambitious guys began an urban gardening project. Robert, one of the two founders of Prinzessinnengärten had lived [...]
Mein Haus am See
An imaginative new Mitte café-bar with a homey feel and lots of great furniture to lounge on… Contrary to its name, Mein Haus am See is neither a house, nor on the sea. It’s a former bookshop and warehouse space located just off busy Rosenthaler Strasse in Mitte - about as far from the seaside as you can get – that's been renovated into a funky new bar and café. But this is Berlin, where fantasy reigns and one person's innercity hangout can easily be another's beach-side dream. [...]
G Wie Goulasch
Simple, home made goulash served in an intimate “living room” environment… Blink and you’ll miss G Wie Goulasch, an itsy eaterie on Chamissoplatz, the quiet square that lies around the corner from bustling Bergmannstrasse. Occupying a small house on the corner of Arndtstrasse, it’s run by Andre Schmermbeck, whose simple business idea was to create a place that serves up hearty, home-made goulash. You know - the kind you get at grandma’s house. It feels a bit like you’re [...]
Paasburg’s Weinhandlung
An unpretentious and well-priced wine warehouse hidden in Kreuzberg 61... Despite taking up a healthy 350 square meters of an old brewery in the heart of Kreuzberg 61, you’re unlikely to come across Paasburg unless you’re heading specifically for it. A mere thespian-lob from the excellent English Theatre on Fidicinstrasse, this low-key Weinhandlung is tucked away in a trade area behind the street's attractive Altbauten. Inside lie a wealth of wines and spirits from over 600 [...]
Knilchbar
The latest venue in Berlin's burgeoning kindercafe scene, Knilchbar ups the game with some serious designer credentials... The last couple of years have seen Kindercafes spring up all over Berlin, catering to an increasing demand from young (and young-ish) parents for a combination of funky, 'adult style' cafes and indoor children's play areas. One of the most recent openings is Knilchbar, near Friedrichshain’s buzzing Boxhagener Platz. Run by friendly young couple Annika and Daniel, [...]
Kollwitzplatz Farmers Market
A popular weekly farmers market in Prenzlauer Berg's pretty Kollwitzplatz Kollwitzplatz is today one of Prenzlauer Berg’s best-known and (arguably) most attractive squares. Named after the famed artist Käthe Kollwitz, whose work reveals it to have once been home to the city’s impoverished and downtrodden, it was one of the first areas to be gentrified when the Wall fell in 1989. You’d never guess at the area's working class roots as you stroll around the leafy, cobbled streets [...]
Sgaminegg
A neighbourhood café with a naturally slow vibe and fantastic home made lunches... There’s something immediately agreeable about Sgaminegg, an unassuming sanctuary of Slow located a few minutes stroll from Schoenhauser Allee’s bustling U-Bahn station. Maybe it’s the way the light floats gently through the two large windows, bouncing off the large floor and splashing across the simple green tables. Perhaps it’s the liminal hum of alternative music, always set at just the right [...]
Chén Chè
A charming and authentic Vietnamese tea room in the heart of Mitte... Despite being tucked away down a courtyard in Mitte, it’s not particularly difficult to find Chén Chè: the pair of tall bamboo plants that stand incongruously on Rosenthaler Strasse and the large blackboard featuring exotic Vietnamese dishes kind of give it away. Duck into the courtyard and Berlin’s newest Vietnamese tea room lies directly ahead. The capacious main room, all dark wooden floors, elegant cascades [...]
