Berlin19 Blog

Little Otik - American Food in Berlin Kreuzberg

2011-05-25T06:54:00.001-07:00

The New York times had a Restaurant Report a few days back about a restaurant call "Little Otik" which servers American food in the heart of Berlin Kreuzberg. I guess New York was to pricy for those two Detroit native so they decided to settle in Berlin. Take a look at the article here. Also here a link to the Little Otik's web site itself. It turns out they are only 20 minutes walking distance from berlin19. Can't wait to check them out soon.

The bathing season in Berlin started May 1st and one of the most unusually outdoors pools is the so called bath ship (Badeschiff)

2011-05-06T07:39:00.001-07:00

You can find the web site of the Badeschiff here. Here you can also find a video which shows, how they're turning it into a sauna in the winter.
Very close to the Badeschiff at the same area is „Club der Visionäre“, where one you can sit on wooden Pontons, listen to DJ's, put your legs into the water, have beer with friends - gorgeous place!
And for people who like a it a little more quiet there is also the Boat Restaurant Freischimmer where you can have your beer or bionade 2 feets above the water. There are not many place like this to stay on a warm summer afternoon.
Did I mention that all of these place are less then 10 min walking distance form out berlin19?

Best place to get information about "what to do in Kreuzberg"

2011-01-18T11:16:00.000-08:00

The best place to get information about what to do in Kreuzberg is www.kieznetz.net. Also Google translates it all into English for you.

The new AirBnb iPhone app highlights one of our Berlin holiday rentals

2010-11-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

The new AirBnB iPhone App which by the way turned out to be an absolute fantastic app highlights one of our holiday rentals called berlin19 under the best 44 place to stay in Berlin. Off those 44 rentals most are either in Berlin Mitte or Prenslauer Berg so our apartment is the only one in the way more interesting district of Kreuzberg 36

Robin put together the perfect San Francisco - Berlin neighboorhood comparison chart

2010-10-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

I find this very helpful and fun at the same time for everybody from San Francisco or people who know San Francisco very well:

Neighborhood analogies: Berlin - San Francisco
    •    Prenzlauerberg is like Noe Valley
    •    Schoeneberg is like the Castro
    •    Friedrichshein is like lower Nob Hill/The Tenderloin
    •    Mitte is downtown
    •    Kreuzberg 36 (zip code where our apt is) is like the Mission/Hayes Valley/Lower Haight
    •    The other part of Kreuzberg 61 (further southwest) is like Duboce Triangle

Burritos, chimichangas and enchiladas

2010-10-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

Since the last time I visited Berlin, a bunch of new Mexican restaurants have popped up around city (as mentioned in the NY Times). I went to one of these, Maria Peligro, at Skalitzer Strasse 81, which is just around the corner from berlin19. It's run by a woman from Dallas, Texas and her boyfriend from Mexico City. I found the food and the atmosphere to be very good---better Mexican food than I have had in San Francisco actually. They have some taco dishes but no burritos, chimichangas and enchiladas that are ubiquitous in California Mexican restaurants. I had a hard time choosing between the chicken mole and a sort of rice paella with fish. I chose the latter and it was delicious. Even the guacamole and the tomale I had for an appetizer were really good. Thanks, Robin

pop-up restaurant in Berlin

2010-09-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

British set designer Tony Hornecker prepares dinner at his restaurant "The Pale Blue Door" in Berlin, September 12, 2010. A British set designer has taken his love for art, added some food, and opened a temporary pop-up restaurant -- made with scrap materials scavenged from the streets -- in one of Berlin's central community gardens. Tony Hornecker, the mastermind behind the thriving shanty town-style restaurant "The Pale Blue Door", said that he does not make any profits with his fanciful underground restaurant, but feels that he is giving Berlin a unique attraction.

For some reason I could find the exact location. Has anybody been there?

Raval restaurant in Berlin: Daniel Brühl's Spanish gastronomy challenge

2010-09-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

The German actor, Daniel Brühl known above all for his Spanish origins (and if he’s not, it’ll come to you as a surprise), was born Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo 32 years ago in Barcelona. These roots have been well and truly demonstrated in his role in films set in Barcelona such as Salvador (Puig), as well as that in the film set on the Barcelona Port, Cargo.

The connection with his birth city and native country will be even stronger with the opening of a Spanish tapas restaurant in Berlin this winter called ´Raval`, which is a clear reference to the popular Barcelona district and where he is often spotted walking around when he comes to visit this exciting city.

This future Spanish restaurant will be located on Lübbener Strasse 1, a well known and bohemian area in Kreuzberg, and it will most definitely be worth a visit not only from the many tourists that flood the district, but also from the Latin and German residents that love Spanish wine, cheese, and the varied Spanish gastronomy. Daniel Brühl intends to cover a basic need which is for him offering authentic Spanish food in the Berlin capital. Its not that there aren’t any Spanish restaurants in the city, it’s just that according to the German actor there is a general lack of quality and authenticity, therefore his aim is non other than to provide what the other Spanish restaurants lack. All the food products will be directly imported from Spain to thus offer authentic Spanish food, so if you’re passing through Berlin, pass by the Spanish restaurant ´Raval` if you would like to try authentic Spanish cooking in the heart of the Berlin capital.

According to google maps his restaurant is 10 minutes walking distance from berlin19. We for sure will check it out next summer.

Citizens to build car-free district in Kreuzberg, Berlin

2010-09-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Citizens to build car-free district in Kreuzberg, Berlin

To do so they bought the land which former belonged to the german railway at the S-Bahn station Yorck Strasse in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The cooperative “Initiative Möckern Neighborhood” bought a 30000 square meters area from “Vivico Real Estate” for eight million Euros as the company announced on Tuesday. Planned on the three football fields big area is the construction of 385 apartments for around 1000 people. The initiative states that its objective is "to live socially inclusive, ecologically, culturally and inter-barrier-free and car-free. There are also planning to have seminar rooms, a children and youth center and a "neighborhood canteen" to be used by all the inhabitants. Sounds kind of like Co-housing an a large scale.

"The art of giving art" today 6pm

2010-07-15T02:10:00.000-07:00

Just in case you haven’t heard about the papergirl yet. Check out the website of papergirl berlin. Their location is less then a mile away from our vacation rental on Mariannenplatz right across the street from the Bethanien (Yes, Berlin’s most famous squat Germanys most famous band Ton Steine Scherben sings about in the “Rauch-Haus-Song”).

Sounds pretty Buddhist to me: “The art of giving art” – Possibilities and boundaries of Urban Art in Discussion

Neurotitan gallery

Rosenthaler Straße 39, 10178 Berlin

Start: 6pm

The event will be hosted by Mark Butler and is held in English language. Admission is free.

Foto: Anne Wizorek

How can we make art accessible to everyone, and is this even a desirable goal? Isn’t there a risk for artworks of becoming random and falling in value? Or should one always overcome conventions in order to break new ground?

The contradictions regarding art are easily perceptible and especially art in public is often confronted with not only admirers but also with harsh criticism. Therefore our event “The art of giving art” wants to discuss possibilities and boundaries of art in public as a part of the Papergirl festival.

We will start with the Papergirl project itself by letting international Papergirl initiators introduce us to their very own project which they started in their home cities. Our guests are from England (Manchester), Romania (Bucharest), South Africa (Cape Town), and the USA (Albany, NY), and will provide insight into what drove them to start Papergirl, and which problems they had to overcome. This will be the basis for a further debate on an international scale.

For this purpose we also invited guests working in different cultural fields and therefore having various connections and experiences with art and its occurrence in public spaces: Juliane Breternitz is a cultural worker, Stéphane Bauer is a curator and head of the art space Bethanien in Kreuzberg, Lukas Feireiss is a curator as well and provides his expertise in public art for the Gestalten publishing company, Katharina Becker is a professional designer who also represents the Papergirl Berlin team in the discussion, and Marc Scherer owns the ATM gallery in Berlin and is furthermore an artist himself.

Is art in public spaces still a modern way of expression considering the digital age that we’re living in? Can this kind of art be provoking any longer now that it has been adopted so heavily by advertising? Or have we already reached an oversaturation?

In collaboration with the Papergirl visitors we will discuss the current status of artistic methods in public spaces, and moreover we will sketch visions of future developments. You are cordially invited to be our guests at this great event and we are looking forward to seeing you there!

Exhibition today: "Sammlung Bauhaus"

2010-07-13T04:37:00.000-07:00

Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin, today, 10 am - 17pm Uhr

"Sammlung Bauhaus - The original of the classical modernity" is the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind.

Ninety years ago, Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar. It existed for only 14 years, but it became the most important school of modernity. With Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Gerhard Marcks, Adolf Meyer, Georg Muche, László Moholy-Nagy, Hinnerk Scheper, Oskar Schlemmer, Joost Schmidt, Lothar Schreyer and Gunta Stölzl, a faculty with an international reputation worked under the direction of Walter Gropius (1919-1928), Hannes Meyer (1928-1930) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1930-1933) at the Bauhaus.

The Bauhaus is Germany’s most successful contribution to international art and culture of modernity in the early 20th century. More than 75 years after it was closed in Berlin, the reputation of this inter-disciplinary school for architecture, design, visual and performing arts that moved to Dessau in 1925 continues to be as internationally significant as ever. The vibrancy and impact of the Bauhaus during its existence and after its dissolution in 1933 demonstrate that although the Bauhaus, as a laboratory and workshop of modernity, was destroyed by a deliberate political act, it was exactly that circumstance that enabled it to unfurl its global influence – history’s irony.

On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Bauhaus and 20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the leading Bauhaus research institutions and museums in Germany – the Bauhaus Archive Berlin, the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and the Klassik Stiftung Weimar – for the first time jointly present an exhibition: Bauhaus. A Conceptual Model. With well over 900 objects it will be the largest Bauhaus exhibition ever.

The exhibition recounts the story of the Bauhaus in a comprehensive presentation of the works of its masters and students as well as the most important school issues. Inter-disciplinary, experimental teaching, the concept of practice-oriented workshops, the pursuit of answers to social questions, the propagation of timeless aesthetics as well as experimentation with new techniques and materials in architecture and design were the school’s most important concerns. The exhibition Bauhaus. A Conceptual Model centres on the comprehensive significance of the Bauhaus for the development and internationalisation of modernity and goes beyond, examining its world-wide, lasting impact on architecture and design up until the present day.

While previous exhibitions on the Bauhaus were grouped according to its workshops, Bauhaus. A Conceptual Model chooses the perspective of the history of its development, embedding the objects into their respective contexts. The curators of the three participating Bauhaus institutions also pursue the issues of the further development, reception and current significance of the Bauhaus.

The presentation of the historical Bauhaus is located in the 18 ground floor galleries of the Martin-Gropius-Bau, while in the centre hall of the building the relevance of the Bauhaus will be discussed and re-positioned.

Bauhaus. A Conceptual Model is presented in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which will celebrate its 80th birthday with the exhibition Bauhaus 1919 – 1933: Workshops for Modernity directly following the Berlin presentation.

Boom in Bike tourism in Berlin

2010-07-13T02:43:00.000-07:00

The blog of the bike store called Rad Spannerei is talking about a boom in Bike tourism in Berlin. Apparently there are over 20 different companies who offer organized bike tours for tourist through Berlin. Christian Taenzler the spokes person of the “Berlin Tourismus Marketing GmbH: says that “in principle one can see all of Berlin’s attractions by bike” The reason he give why bike tourism is blooming in Berlin is because Berliners are more considerate towards bicyclists then people in other cities like Barcelona or Landon. Being in Berlin right now I can confirm that it is much more pleasant to bike here then even in the most quiet parts of Brooklyn. Also since last summer places where you can rent bikes seems to have tripled at least in here in Kreuzberg were our holiday rental is.

Freiluftkino Kreuzberg: Watching without a roof

2010-05-21T05:03:00.000-07:00

Kreuzberg is on of Berlin's great outdoor movie theater it is loated right behind Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, up the block from so many great cafes on Oranienstrasse, and just across the water from Bar25. Be warned: this is one of the more popular Freiluftkinos so get in line early. From berlin19 you can walk to this Freiluftkino at the Adalbertstrasse 73 in 10 minutes or less. You can find their program here http://www.freiluftkino-kreuzberg.de as well as subscribe to their online calendar.

New Mosque will open tomorrow in Kreuzberg

2010-05-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

After several years of construction the Omar-Ibn-Al-Khattar Mosque right at the Görlitzer Bahnhof will open on Friday May 21st here in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The new Mosque allows about 1000 people to pray. The Mosque is part of the new Maschari Center which also houses offices and seminar spaces. The Mosque looks very modern and one could fight about its beauty. For the longest time it looked like the Mosque would never be finished but now it is and it can be considered part of Kreuzbergs colorful fabric of society. I use to pass by this unfinished building on my bike on my way from our holiday rental "berlin19" when ever I need to go to our local food coop called LPG.

Jewish Muesuem in Berlin Kreuzburg is showing drawing for new construction

2010-05-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

One of Berlins Must-Do's is definitely the Jewish Museum. In fact it is so popular that the original Architect is introduced plans for an extension yesterday (5/4/2010). A new building across the street of the original building so the plan will be the home of an academy, an archive and an library. The museum is in one of Berlin's most popular districts called Kreuzberg and can easily reached from our vacation rental which happens to be in the same district. For more information take a look at the web site of the Jewish Museum.

The Prinzenbad opened for the summer season today

2010-05-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday the Kreuzberger open air swimming pool in the Prinzenstraße opened its doors. As of now it will be open from 7am till 7pm. The Kreuzberger open air swimming pool is well visit amongst young people during their summer break and was the film location for several successful movies like a documentary called «Prinzessinenbad». The Prinzenbad can be reached from our vacation rental in the Eisenbahnstrasse within 10 minutes by bike or via U-Bahn from Görlitzter Bahnhof.

May 1st is the 8th time the fantastic "MyFest" a neighborhood fest in Kreuzberg is happening again

2010-04-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

Kreuzberg is know for its colorful and very popular neighborhood fest. Every year there are thousands of visitors coming from other neighborhoods or out of town to be part of this party. The party is happening around the Kottbusser Tor (which is also the name of the closest Underground Station), Oranienstraße and the Heinrichplatz. There will be lots of stages with a variety of musical and cultural events. Food wise Kreuzberg is know for its very international food. As usually there will be a very fun program for kids with break dance soccer, climbing walls etc. No wander May is berlin19's busiest month. You can check out its availability here (http://www.berlin19.com/page3/index.html).

Legendary Berliner Club SO36 saved ...

2010-04-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

SO36 is Kreuzberg's most famous Club. 100.000 Euro were needed to soundproof it. In September the "Toten Hosen" Germany's most famous punk band gave Benefits concert. More donations are needed but it looks like SO36 will survive. SO36 is less then 15 minutes walking distance away from our not as famous vacation rental berlin19 :). See for yourself on Google Maps.

berlin19 - short term rental now on Twitter and Facebook

2010-04-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

You now can subscribe to our blog using this URL in Apples email program or with a newsreader like Netnewswire: http://www.berlin19.com/page4/files/berlin19blogRSS.php. You now can also find us on Twitter. Look for rnetter or on Facebook using that very same id rnetter. That way you can find out whats new in Berlin or with berlin19 and get our newest specials renting out berlin19.

Two new bike rental system called StadtRAD being tested in Berlin

2010-04-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

The Deutsche Bundesbahn (The German Train Campany) is testing a two bike rental system. There is already a pretty good one in place but currently they two new Systems the so called flex-System the so called fix-System where the bikes are parked at a fixed location. The flex-System the bikes have to be parked in a signed area in designated rental area. To use either system you need a customer card.

Practically this means that Berlin will probably soon offer more choices to rent a bike. But then berlin19 has 3 bikes our guest can rent.

Was zum lachen von Icke & Er

2010-01-04T11:30:00.000-08:00

Hier das Youtube Video Icke & Er - Keen Hawaii. I hope you'll like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB1152sq9o8

Radleranteil in Kreuzberg liegt bei 21 Prozent

2009-12-01T05:58:00.000-08:00

Die Berliner Zeitung veröffentlichte gestern neue Zahlen zum Radfahreranteil in unterschiedlichen Bezirken. Danach liegt der Anteil der Radfahrer am gesamten Verkehr in Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain bei 21 Prozent. Der Anteil des Fahrrads bei der Verkehrsmittelwahl beträgt in Pankow 17 Prozent und in Mitte 14 Prozent. In manchen Außenbezirken spielt das Rad nach wie vor eine untergeordnete Rolle. So sind in Marzahn-Hellersdorf und in Lichtenberg nur sechs beziehungsweise sieben Prozent mt dem Fahrrad unterwegs. Der Gesamtberliner Durchschnittswert für den Fahrradverkehr liegt bei 13 Prozent.

Berliner Zeitung: Fast wie in Holland

Kreuzberg bei weitem der beleibteste Stadtteil in Berlin

2009-07-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hier der Artikel zur Prinz Umfrage in der Kreuzberg 20 Prozentpunkte vor dem zweitbeleibtesten Stadtteil Friedrichshain liegt.

http://berlin.prinz.de/stadt/stadt-entdecken/prinz-stadtteiltest-berlin,652824,1,Article.html

http://bbbike.radzeit.de/cgi-bin/bbbike.en.cgi

2008-09-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

bbbike sucht (Fahrrad-)Routen in Berlin. Es sind ca. 7500 von 10000 Berliner Straßen sowie ca. 300 Potsdamer Straßen erfasst (alle Hauptstraßen und wichtige Nebenstraßen). Bei nicht erfassten Straßen wird automatisch die nächste bekannte verwendet. Straßen bitte ohne Hausnummern oder Postleitzahlen eingeben.

http://bbbike.radzeit.de/cgi-bin/bbbike.en.cgi

Berlin, the Big Canvas

2008-06-22T07:15:00.000-07:00

Berlin is the most cultured city in Europe. You could make the argument, certainly, after walking silent and alone through the majesty of the Gemäldegalerie, pausing for a while before Tiepolo’s “Martyrdom of St. Agatha” to consider the agonies of faith.
Berlin Travel Guide

Oliver Hartung for The New York Times
Entrecôte at Paris Bar. More Photos »
You could make it alongside the tourists marveling at the Grecian splendor of the Pergamon Altar in the museum that bears its name, or beneath the roar of applause at the end of “Tannhäuser” at the Staatsoper, or while reading Brecht in the Tiergarten, the city’s verdant central park.
Facts: You could go to art galleries in Berlin for a solid week and find yourself not halfway through a master list. You could spend two weeks wandering Museum Island and still miss a few Romantics; you could spend a career within the Bode Museum.
Less ambitiously, you could take a canal boat along the winding Spree and marvel at the street art from some of the celebrated graffitimen — Banksy, CBS, Kripoe — who have come to leave their marks. It’s a beautiful trip. You could argue the merits of the city’s Holocaust Memorial, designed by Peter Eisenman, a grid of nearly five acres of tall concrete slabs that appears to roll east out of the Tiergarten in the manner of a cemetery, a Greek hill town, or a failure.
But then you should make your way into the glamorous heart of a city that has borne witness to horror and majesty alike, to eat.
Because, really, where there is culture there ought to be food. It needn’t be caparisoned with foam or gold leaf, nor lauded by Michelin. It should be simply good, and it should be served well, and it should allow for the free and wide-ranging discussion of art for as long as you like.
It was that desire that occasioned a trip to Berlin this spring: a desire to wander through the city’s arty demimonde and to eat beside its residents, to talk smack about video installations and works of string, critics, government grants, gallery dreams, gallery crimes — and then to eat heartily.
It was that desire that led directly to the Johann König gallery, a few blocks off the Potsdamer Platz, where two art critics were discussing shadow and perspective. This was a lucky business.
The critics, one American, the other German, had arrived unannounced, and were now talking with the Norwegian artist Matias Faldbakken. Mr. Faldbakken was putting long pieces of black tape onto a Belgian linen canvas on one of the gallery’s walls, layering them one atop another to create abstract shapes that might have been letters. The work was part of a group show at the gallery that was to open the following day. The conversation was, apparently, one that had been going on for some time.
“What does it say?” asked one of the critics, Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times, gesturing at the canvas. The question was the sort that raises art critics above the status of the average human being, who might simply have looked at the shapes and smiled tightly.
The other critic, Andreas Schlaegel, has a sideline as an Elvis impersonator in addition to his written work; he also plays drums in a band called Art Critics Orchestra. He chuckled. Americans have far fewer long words than Germans. But straightforwardness is one of them.
Mr. Faldbakken, tall and blond and skateboarderish, cocked his head to the side and offered a small smile.
“I’m not going to tell you this time,” he said, placid as Oslo. “It remains an enigma.”
They all laughed. Mr. Faldbakken put on his backpack and headed out the door into the afternoon sun.
It was almost time to eat.
THE Berlin Biennale, the city’s vast contemporary art fair, would open the following day, and the city was filling with the art-world mob: curators from New York, buyers from Kyoto, Italians in Prada and duty-free cologne. Some would repair to bistros in the city’s prosperous west, others to grittier precincts in Kreuzberg, or leafier ones in Prenzlauer Berg.
Mr. Kimmelman was bound for the Grill Royal, in Mitte, the city’s most central — literally, middle — neighborhood, formerly in East Berlin. And by early evening he was settling in there, a steak house right off Friedrichstrasse, tucking into oysters and gin.
The room provides a view of the kind of restaurant scene only a city that has both money and space can provide: a large, airy dining room set under low ceilings, with wide tables and gentle lighting, packed close with artists, curators, dealers, gallery guys, smart-eyeglassed business tyros in three-piece suits, fat burghers eating Irish steak, French entrecôte, Argentine beef.
There isn’t much in the way of celebrity culture in Berlin, but Grill Royal serves those who make the grade on its wide boulevards and cobbled side streets: American film stars; Scandinavian novelists; Germany’s political elite. Waiters swing past them on the double-quick, polyglot and efficient, bearing plates of enormous salads, briny oysters, steaks and steaks and yet more steaks, the occasional grilled dorade.
Glass-backed, fluorescent-lighted refrigerators flank the open kitchen, offering diners a view of real-life Damien Hirst: large fish piled high beside giant crab legs; fillets of beef hanging in the cold, still air, beside the tools used to break them down. A wax-encrusted Vespa scooter sits in one corner acting as a kind of massive, hipster-European candelabrum; a stuffed peacock makes its strutting point in the room’s center; neon-tubed sculptures on the wall by the bathroom may wink broadly toward the flowers of Georgia O’Keeffe. “Those are vaginas,” Mr. Kimmelman said.
The food is excellent. Start with Fine de Claire oysters from the murky, green pools of Marennes-Oléron in western France, along the Bay of Biscay — medium-size, sweet, a little nutty, cold. Try a bibb salad the size of an upside-down hat, bathed in soft and creamy vinaigrette. Behold those plates of grassy, tender meat, crust-grilled and served beside a piquant steak sauce, with toothsome roasted baby potatoes with rosemary on the side, a dish of plain steamed spinach, another of sweetly turned coins of carrot.
To drink? A waiter brought a 2000 Château du Beau Vallon from St.-Émilion — a fat Bordeaux happy to be in Germany entertaining Americans. It did more than nicely.
There are plenty of other places to eat in Berlin while on the art-scene prowl. For breakfast, you might head west to Charlottenburg, to have coffee and pastry at the Café Wintergarten in the Literaturhaus on Fasanenstrasse (say that three times fast!), before ducking into the Springer & Winckler Galerie to see what’s up (some ghostly Sigmar Polkes).
You could head east to Unter den Linden, perhaps the city’s most splendid boulevard, to have a rich farmer’s omelet with sweet baby potatoes and thick bacon hunks at the warm and crowded Café Einstein there, then venture out on an institutional stroll. Unter den Linden hosts, among others, the pink, fascinating, vaguely scary and old Deutsches Historisches Museum, where construction finished in 1706, with its airy addition by I. M. Pei (who wrapped up work in 2003). There is also the Staatsoper and Berlin’s outpost of the Guggenheim, on the ground floor of the headquarters of Deutsche Bank, where there were some fine Olafur Eliasson glacier photographs on display.
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After an Einstein omelet, though, a walk through the Brandenburg Gate and up to the Reichstag would not be an error, if only to get the blood moving past your stomach. In addition, of course, there is the sheer magnificence of the building’s facade, still pockmarked with war-era bullet holes, rising off its wide base toward the new Norman Foster-designed glass dome on its top. Standing beneath that on a clear Berlin morning, well apart from the long lines waiting to get in, it is easy to imagine the strange beauty of the building wrapped in foil, a project the artist Christo completed in 1995.
But this is so mainstream and obvious, no? Next you’ll be asking for lunch at the Kempinski Hotel, eaten outside on the Kurfürstendamm with a soft fleece blanket wrapped around your knees, followed by some shopping (Chanel! Jil Sander!).
Better to put on some black and head east, fortified with coffee bought in an S-bahn station (a subway by New York lights, taken from “Stadtschnellbahn,” or fast city train), toward Checkpoint Charlie, the Kreuzberg gallery scene, and lunch.
The aristocrats of art walk through the former East Berlin as royalty might through a distant part of their dominion, stepping carefully over puddles in suede loafers and wicked heels, past empty lots filled with cold-war emptiness, ancient graffiti, the gloom of communism, toward the light-filled spaces of men on the make. Many are bound for Sale e Tabacchi, a perfect Italian restaurant in the Rudi-Dutschke-Haus, so named for the leader of Berlin’s left-wing student movement in the 1960s, who died in 1979, after being shot by an assassin more than a decade earlier.
You are bound there as well. But first, take in some art. First stop: Max Hetzler, a gallery hard by one of those lots on Zimmerstrasse; it’s a bit as if Larry Gagosian had an outpost in Newark, or on the southern end of the south side of Chicago. A stone’s throw from where the wall once divided the city, Mr. Hetzler had mounted “Always There,” a show of work devoted to the color gray — by Richard Phillips, Albert Oehlen and André Butzer — set in rooms as high-ceilinged and beautiful as a palace, or a church.
Mr. Hetzler, rumpled and friendly, with the handshake of a polar bear, chuckled at the idea of Sale e Tabacchi. He would be there soon, he said. Everyone would.
Galleries are thick on the ground in this neighborhood, which approximates Chelsea in both art density and market strength. In addition to Mr. Hetzler’s space — a Berlin home to Kara Walker, Thomas Struth and Bridget Riley, to name a few — there are the Swedish dealer Claes Nordenhake’s gallery, on Lindenstrasse, where a drawing and collage show by the Swedish artist Ann Bottcher was rising, and the Jablonka Galerie on nearby Kochstrasse, where Alex Katz’s “Marine” paintings were hanging wide and beautiful. Also on Kochstrasse, Julius Werner has a ground-floor space, where A. R. Penck’s graffiti-ish paintings and odd, figurative sculptures were showing, an evocation of both New York and the 1980s in one fell swoop. It was the sort of show that makes one want to smoke.
Instead, though: basta. Pasta! Sale e Tabacchi sits behind huge glass windows and an elegant bar, stretching out beneath immense ceilings toward a courtyard garden in back; it’s the Kreuzberg version of the famous Borchardt restaurant on the Gendarmenmarkt, where the city’s elite gather at lunch, and schnitzel is the very large coin of the realm. Here, though, waiters in long, flowing aprons speak comic-opera Italian and serve a bustling crowd of underemployed artistes who’ve locked their sleek Dutch bicycles out front; business fellows with BlackBerrys and iPhones; Mr. Hetzler and his wife, Samia Saouma, reading newspapers in the back.
You might decry this scene in favor of more street-friendly food, what Berliners call imbiss food, for the small shops that serve it: Turkish doner kebabs in the gyro tradition; pretzels; the odious hotdogs in ketchup, dusted liberally with spice that are known in Berlin as currywurst. There is even a marvelous Neapolitan pizza place on Oranienstrasse, also in Kreuzberg, called Pizza a Pezzi-Napulé, which for anyone interested in global pizza-slice ethnography is worth a detour.
But have a perfect veal tonnato at Sale e Tabacchi, a plate of ravioli in sage butter, some soft bread, a small taste of espresso to finish. Those Pencks were kind of droll, no? Do they sell at all now? Save for a reporter or two, there’s not a rube in sight.
BERLIN is a lively city, and a walk along the Kurfürstendamm or a visit to the food court at KaDeWe — Europe’s largest department store, on Taventzienstrasse, near the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church — shows it to be an occasionally crowded one as well. But the population has never recovered from the war and the division that plagued it for a half century, and with 3.5 million people in a metropolitan region that supported a million more in 1939, it rarely achieves anything approaching critical mass.
That statement is challenged nightly at Paris Bar, however. Set down the street from the Theater des Westens, and around the corner from the Savoy Hotel (where, if you’ve had enough of artists, there is a lovely little cigar bar to while away some time with a copy of the Financial Times and a Cuban panatela), Paris Bar was near the center of West Berlin’s gallery scene in late cold-war days; it was dealt a grievous blow by the fall of the Wall, when the art world fled east to Mitte and once bustling Charlottenburg became sleepy, a place for the old.
That cycle is turning now, back toward the west, with Paris Bar an important beneficiary. The restaurant is a gathering place for artists and dealers alike, perhaps the city’s most important art-world canteen, serving both the chic and the beautiful, the jet-lagged and the underwashed who follow them — the people, Mr. Kimmelman said, “with interesting facial hair.” In Manhattan terms, it’s as if Elaine’s, the celebrity bar, bred with Raoul’s, the SoHo bistro, and hired Anne Isaak, a charismatic and unflappable owner of Elio’s, the east side trattoria, to run the place. A sign set into the floor of the entranceway reads, “Passant Sois Moderne,” a kind of plea: “Passersby, be modern.”
This refers to the art on the walls, really: crowded tight with portraits of Karl Lagerfeld, Tracy Emin, salon-hung thises and thats; if you can paint convincingly well, you could probably trade work for food here and want to. The menu is old and perfect.
And so there is French onion soup, deep with flavor, and more of those briny, perfect Fine de Claires, and a salad of baby spinach and bacon, with a soft poached egg in buttermilky dressing. There are glasses and glasses of rosé, and entrecôte with béarnaise and crunchy fries, duck à l’orange with turned carrots, a perfect soft omelet of tomatoes and bacon. Familiar? Yes, it’s bistro and bohemian and correct down to the sautéed rabbit livers set atop a bright salad cut sour with endive and bright with vinaigrette. One will probably suffice for the table: rabbits in Germany, it would appear, have enormous livers.
Germans, too. The wine flows freely into the night, as an Icelandic film director high-fives everyone in sight, as French waiters serve American museum staff members and tattooed fellows who might be Polish, Belgian, or both. Smoke curls north to the ceiling like mist. (Berlin banned smoking in restaurants in January; that message has yet to make it to Kantstrasse 152.) Conversations rattle along in German, French, English, Italian, in some multinational Esperanto of shared cultural literacy: some love the artist Pushwagner’s “Soft City” graphic novel art at the Kunst-Werke, part of the Biennale; many decry all the silly video installations; definitely everyone will have something more to drink.
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And so to bed. Walking out of the place on a cool Berlin night, shrugging into jackets after the heat and bustle within, two young men passed by the restaurant. One paused; something had caught his eye. He pointed to a poster hung in the window, advertising the show at Jablonka, across town.
“Ja, ja, Alex Katz,” he said, excitedly. Art city!
A CITY WITH ART IN THE AIR AND A LOT ON ITS PLATES
WHERE TO STAY
Savoy Hotel (Fasanenstrasse 9-10; 49-30-311-03-0; www.hotel-savoy.com) is an elegant dowager with 125 rooms, a block from the Kurfürstendamm in Charlottenburg, near the Berlin Zoo. It’s comfortable and quiet, with a lobby that smells faintly of the cigar bar next door and a sumptuous dining room that does not. Double rooms from 75 euros, about $120 at $1.61 to the euro.
Hotel de Rome (Behrenstrasse 37; 49-30-460-60-90; www.hotelderome.com) offers fancier accommodations in its 146 spacious rooms in the former Central Bank of East Berlin. The building’s edifice dates to 1889, when it was the head office of the Dresdner Bank, and has been lavishly remodeled — the underground vault, for example, is now a swimming pool. Double rooms from 395 euros.
Eastern Comfort (Mühlenstrasse 73-77; 49-30-667-63-806; www.eastern-comfort.com) is a houseboat in the Spree River, popular in the backpacker and hippie-cat sets, on the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, near the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall. Double rooms from 54 euros.
WHERE TO EAT
Café Einstein (Unter den Linden 42; 49-30-2043-632;) is a clubby and welcoming coffee house near the Brandenburg Gate, with excellent eggs and bacon to match the strong coffee. Old-timers will tell you the original location on Kurfürstenstrasse is better. So be it: Breakfast runs around 36 euros for two.
Grill Royal (Friedrichstrasse 105B; 49-30-2887-9288; www.grillroyal.com) is a chic steak house in Mitte, set on the bank of the Spree, perfect for introducing oneself to the pleasures of Fine de Claire oysters. Follow with a grilled steak and excellent potatoes, a few glasses of wine, and you’re out the door for at least 65 euros.
Sale e Tabacchi (Kochstrasse 18; 49-30-2521-155, www.sale-e-tabacchi.de) serves as a kind of elegant cafeteria for Kreuzberg gallery owners and the art-world crowd that provides them their business. Excellent pastas and salads, accompanied by gallons of sparkling water, will cost around 20 euros a person at lunch.
Pizza a Pezzi-Napulè (Oranienstrasse 176; no phone) is a modest pizza parlor in Kreuzberg with pizza made in the Neapolitan style. You’ll be in and out for around 3 euros a person, particularly if you think of the meal as a snack, best taken before or after a meal at Sale e Tabacchi.
Paris Bar (Kantstrasse 152; 49-30-313-80-52; www.parisbar.net) is a bustling art canteen in Charlottenburg that serves bistro grub of the first order: excellent steak frites, glistening salads. The reservation policy is quirky. If you call from a hotel, the host may declare the restaurant fully booked. Show up at the door unannounced, however, and chances are you’ll be whisked to a table immediately. Dinner for two, with copious wine, will cost around 125 euros.
WHAT TO SEE
In addition to Museum Island, Unter den Linden and the Kulturforum museums, Berlin’s vibrant gallery scene provides days of possibility. Highlights include:
At the Max Hetzler Galerie (Zimmerstrasse 90-91; 49-30-229-24-37; www.maxhetzler.com), an elegant gallery near Checkpoint Charlie, there is an exhibition by the installation artist Mona Hatoum.
The Johann König, Berlin (Dessauer Strasse 6-7; 49-30-26-10-30-80; www.johannkoenig.de), a large, spare and light-soaked gallery near the Potsdamer Platz, is the summer home of a solo exhibition by Andreas Zybach.
The Springer & Winckler Galerie (Fasanenstrasse 13; 49-30-315-7220; www.springer-winckler.de) is an airy space nestled into a quiet block off the Kurfürstendamm; a show of Andy Goldsworthy’s drawings and objects is up through the end of June.
Finally, the Staatsoper (www.staatsoper-berlin.org) on Unter den Linden offers tours of the house and the stage all summer. The Martha Graham Dance Company begins a stand there the evening of July 4.