“Human and animal, warm and cool, spacious and cosy” is how St. Gaudy Café, a lively coffee shop on the corner of Schoenhauser Allee and Gaudystrasse, describes itself.

St. Gaudy Cafe (photo by Carlijn Potma)

As the statement suggests it’s an open, breezy kind of place – something of a neighbourhood favourite in an area of Berlin not especially renowned for its funky caffeine hangouts.

A steady stream of people saunter in for takeaways, chat with the staff and leave again; others stay for hours, indulging in the café’s range of drinks and snacks and taking advantage of the free wifi.

The owners – an Australian/Irish couple named Dee Dee and Niall – founded the place in November 2009, and have created a typical Berlin-esque interior. There are two main rooms, both well-lit and furnished with small round tables and sofas placed against the light grey walls.

There are retro chairs and sofas, artwork from resident and visiting artists on the walls, a fifties-inspired counter. The indoor plants scattered around the café (including the toilets) lend a decidedly homey feel. True to their word, the living room atmosphere is indeed spacious yet cosy or – if you prefer – warm but cool.

St. Gaudy’s menu is written on a blackboard above the counter: mainly organic and meat-free light meals, different types of breakfast, cold drinks like freshly squeezed juices and – of course – a wide range of coffee specialties, made of  locally roasted and carefully selected beans.

The display counter is filled with homemade cakes, muffins, croissants and a variation of freshly made bagels and sandwiches. You’ll also find a ‘dish of the week’ and every day there is a selection of delicious quiche.

St. Gaudy Cafe (photo by Carlijn Potma)

The prices aren’t bad either, but the really special thing about St. Gaudy’s (apart from the easy-going, friendly ambience), are their events. The café work hard to organise something most nights, from cabaret and tango classes to art shows, movie nights, yoga classes and live music and poetry. Most of these happenings take place in the ‘B’hind Room’, a space at the back of the café.

Especially popular are the German-French and German-English language exchanges, which enable attendees to practice their skills in a relaxed setting – a perfect scenario for newbies and expats (the staff are all English speaking too, making this a generally international  experience).

Oh, and ‘humans and animals’? Well, you’ll just have to pop along yourself and meet the adorable resident pooch.

St. Gaudy Café
Gaudystrasse 1
Prenzlauerberg 10437 Berlin
Open: Mon – Fri  8 –19, Sat – Sun 9-19 (closing time varies depending on events)
Map

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.

Photo: Paul Sullivan

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 masterpiece spiral elegantly outwards from a reproduction of an Alphonse Mucha mural – a summer-clad Art-Nouveau woman (Lady Dada?) sniffing coquettishly at a flower – and unfurl along the walls behind the counter.

The conceptual borders between flower shop and café blur even further the more time you spend here. Delicate odors waft through the cafe when the internal door is opened; petals and other flower parts turn up in the beverages and food (think rose-infused crepes, teas, home-made ice cream); gorgeous bouquets and arrangements punctuate the tasteful interior.

A pervasive Art Deco theme continues through the curving red leather banquets, the solid, marble-topped tables and the dark, cosy salon at the rear, all red drapes and candlelight even during the day. Oddly the place only opened in 2005 – it feels like its been here forever.

You can also sit outside on the generous patio (blankets and heat lamps during winter) and watch the Prenzlauer Bergers go about their business. If that gets boring, grab a free book from the tree library – a community bookstore cunningly inserted into a nearby tree trunk.

Anna Blume’s menu stretches to hearty lunches and vigorous dinner courses made from seasonal ingredients – but it’s as a breakfast and cake place that it reigns supreme. For Frühstück there’s the usual run of muesli, eggs, crepes…but the real highlight are the set breakfasts.

Photo: Paul Sullivan

Named after flowers and priced at around 8 euros, they’re beautifully presented and generously proportioned. Fish fans will love the Anemone (salmon, scrambled eggs, shrimps); the Med-style Oleander features salami, provolone, oyster mushrooms and marinated zucchini; the Alpenrose has Tyrolean ham and Schweinelende (pork loin).

If there are two or more in your group, plump for a platter (17.50 euros for two / 24.50 euros for four): a vibrant medley of hams, eggs, fruits and fish superbly arranged on a tiered silver tray. Such offerings are inevitably coveted, especially at weekends. Arriving between 9-10am is a good idea. Any later and you may be left languishing by the door until a table comes free.

With this in mind, try to find a seat facing away from the door unless you want half a dozen famished eyeballs boring enviously into your Latte Macchiato.

If you’re a late riser – don’t worry. Pop by later in the afternoon and succumb to the café’s cake selection – a glittering catwalk of comely crumbles, slick cheesecakes and baroque gateaux that pout and wink from behind a long glass vitrine. Once you’re done with your treat, stroll past the neighbouring florist and look in the window of the Anna Blume bakery next door. If you’re lucky you’ll witness the white-coated staff working their magic with flour, cream and light industrial machinery.

Anna Blume
Kollwitzstraße 83
Mitte/Prenzlauer Berg
Open: 8am–2am daily
Tel: 030 440 487 49

About The Author

Paul Sullivan is a Berlin-based writer & travel photographer and the founder of Slow Travel Berlin. You can check out his personal website here and some of his photography galleries here.

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.

Photo: Binh Truong

Duck into the courtyard and Berlin’s newest Vietnamese tea room lies directly ahead. The capacious main room, all dark wooden floors, elegant cascades of natural light (during the day) and lovely high ceilings adorned with an assortment of Vietnamese hanging lanterns, exudes an immediate exotic charm.

Dominated the room is an Asian ‘chandelier’ made from the torn pages of a Chinese herbal medicine book. Like the sturdy wooden tables (decorated with squat clusters of flowers and berries and bowls of honey and dates) and distinctive high-backed Asian chairs. the lantern was  designed by the owners, who had everything manufactured in Vietnam then shipped back to Berlin.

Having only opened a couple of months ago, the venue’s newness and refined flamboyance – soundtracked by a euphonious selection of Chanson, jazz and traditional Asian music – can come across as slightly ‘Asia Chic’. But Chén Chè is authentic, run by an extended  Vietnamese family who – as dedicated patrons of their sister restaurants Si An in Prenzlauer Berg and Chi Sing will no doubt tell you – have a passion for, and great knowledge of, the world renowned cuisine of their homeland.

Photo: Binh Truong

The menu, like the venue, is exquisitely balanced. There are around eight starters, a handful of mains and just three delicious-looking desserts. But each dish is meticulously made and the menu’s geography runs from Hanoi and North Vietnam, down through Huế and Hoi An, all the way to Ho Chi Minh and the Mekong ‘rice bowl’ in the south.

The Vorspeisen (starters) include Bò Biá and Chả Giò (uncooked and cooked spring rolls, brimming with tofu, water chestnuts, green papaya, glass noodles and more), Hoành Thành (Wontons, Hoi An style) or – our personal favourite – Xôi Gà, a tasty sticky-rice dish containing coconut milk, Lap Xuong Salami and warm strips of chicken breast.

The mains are equally tasty and healthy, and are supplemented by daily specials – soups, noodle dishes, salads – chalked up on a board near the bar. Through the week the place is best suited for lunches or dinner but at weekends there’s a special breakfast menu featuring everything from waffles and fresh tropical fruits to a “Saigon-style” omelet.

Of course you can also just pop in for a tea. The drinks list is every bit as exciting and imaginative as the food menu, ranging from a gorgeous ’poetry-in-a-cup’ concoction called Blue Butterfly Leaf Tea, which is made with rice milk and blue plant petals specially flown in from Vietnam, to fruit teas and shakes that features such uncommon ingredients as wild maracuja, bitter melon red soybeans and lychee.

Photo: Binh Truong

The coffees are good too. Espressos and cappuccinos are served up with soya milk and you can try a traditional Vietnamese coffee – a viscous black brew that drips slowly through a filter into a sweet, white bed of condensed milk.

Upstairs is another room, soon to be used as an art gallery featuring works by contemporary Vietnamese artists as well as tea ceremonies. You can also buy the lovely porcelain cups and bowls along with a host of imported teas and dainty Vietnamese snacks from a shop near the bar. In summer the adjacent outdoor patio will be opened.

The attention to detail in Chén Chè is generally fantastic. The food (and drink) is excellent quality and the atmosphere warm and friendly. Whether breakfasting with friends at the weekend, lunching with a partner midweek or just sipping some tea and reading a newspaper on a lazy afternoon, you’ll feel exotic and welcome here all at the same time.

Chén Chè
Rosenthaler Str.13
10119 Berlin
Tel:  (0) 30- 28 88 42 82
Open: 12 – 24 daily

About The Author

Paul Sullivan is a Berlin-based writer & travel photographer and the founder of Slow Travel Berlin. You can check out his personal website here and some of his photography galleries here.