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FIVE! Berlin Restaurants With A Great Drinks Menu

Berlin’s food scene is growing just as fast as its bar scene. What about the drinks offerings in restaurants? MIXOLOGY author Andrew Wilkin took a look at the restaurants in Berlin that pay as much attention to the drinks as to your plate…

Bars are for drinks, restaurants are for food. At least, that’s the old way of looking at it. Nowadays, many restaurants are boosting their drinks menus to the levels on par with that of many of bars – and we’re not just talking about good wines. There’s great beer, sake, cocktails, gin, schnapps, and mezcal all on offer. Take a peek at FIVE! restaurants in Berlin that match culinary excellence with tantalizing beverages…

1) Zenkichi – Straight Outta NYC

Sometimes it feels like half of Brooklyn moved to Berlin, whilst the other half talks about it. Brooklyn transplant Zenkichi comes minus a beard, instead equipped as a faithful Japanese Izakaya with a dab hand in sushi and sake. Located on Mitte’s unremarkable Johannisstraße, a stones throw from the high kitsch Friedrichstadt-Palast, it’s a subterranean maze of nooks and crannies. Diners are led from an entrance area adorned with bamboo trees to eat in their own private — and crucially quiet — alcoves.

Alongside two set menus full of dishes such as the homemade fresh tofu, the apple pork kakuni and the maguro carpaccio (tuna sashimi with green yuzu pepper sauce), there’s around 30 sakes on the menu. Guests can choose to try a basic, premium or connoisseurs sake tasting — all of which consist of 3 selected sakes each. The Connoisseurs list is one to savour, offering up Sanka, Wakatake and Isojiman. There’s cocktails too. Expect the drinks list to grow and grow, with plans afoot for a new bar opening in the venue next year — one stocked with even more sakes and J-whiskies. A huge sake fridge display is also in the offing.

Zenkichi, Johannisstraße 20, 10117 Berlin

2)  Industry Standard – Neukölln Standout

Industry Standard is slightly different to its Sonnenallee brethren. Rather than peddling döner, schawarma or bargain wedding dresses, Industry Standard is aiming for something more haute, more experimental. Defining the restaurant is somewhat tricky — it has roots in the experimental British, the French and Mediterranean cuisines — but the focus is squarely on the highest quality ingredients. The small plates on offer are often riffs on established classics. Hot tip: the beef tartare with smoked cod roe and kohlrabi.

Even when the kitchen closes at Industry Standard, the night goes on at the bar. There’s a cocktail menu. Spirits galore. A list of natural and biodynamic wines to salivate over, curated by Viniculture. Craft beers — you’ll need one with their Pickled Pork Tongue on Toast — are also available, including some Stone Brewing offerings, such as the Arrogant Bastard. They even brew their own beer in the basement!

The interior is relatively minimal, with the focus on the big open plan kitchen and bar where the magic happens. Owner Ramses Manneck also opened up Berlin’s Maria Bonita, both Santa Maria eateries and Spanish tapas bar Gaston and has plans, alongside the owners of Mexico City’s acclaimed Licorera Limantour, to open up a natural wine and cocktail bar just around the corner on Weserstraße. Watch this space…

Industry Standard, Sonnenallee 83, 12045 Berlin

3) Jolesch – Spirits in Abundance

In the last 20 years, SO36 may have gone from zero to hero but Austrian restaurant Jolesch hasn’t changed much at all. Run by Salzburg transplant Renate Dengg since the early 90s, Kreuzberg’s Jolesch matches unpretentious but high-quality Austrian cuisine — from classic dishes such as Wiener Schnitzel and Goulasch to more modern offerings — with a drinks list of equal quality. The lengthy, mostly Austrian, wine list makes for a perfect dinner pairing.

But what we’re especially intrigued by is the schnapps list, suitable for a digestif, one that includes spirits from Hans Reisetbauer, Brennerei Guglhof and Pfau Edelbrände — all Austrian producers. Try Guglhof’s Dirndlbrand Reserve — not an Oktoberfest dress but a forest cherry schnapps of extraordinary taste. A gin list titled “Ginspiration” includes such European luminaries as Beefeater (Beefeater London Dry, Beefeater 24 London Dry Gin and Beefeater Burroughs Reserve Oak Rested Gin), Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Gin, Alambic’s Special Islay Gin and Gin Mare. All in all, boozy Gemütlichkeit in abundance.

Jolesch, Muskauer Str. 1, 10997 Berlin

4) Chicha Berlin – Pisco Pushers

Peruvian food is certifiably in right now and Chicha Berlin offers arguably Berlin’s best ceviche. A relatively new arrival in town — in bricks and mortar at least, it’s been on the street food/pop up circuit for a while — Chicha Berlin has succeeded in treading a fine line: evoking some South American colour without upsetting the neutral palettes of trendy Berliners. Vibrant, but not ostentatious.

Run by German ceviche aficionado Robert Peveling-Oberhag, Chicha Berlin has both the classics and innovative newbies on their drinks menu. The Pisco Sour and the Pisco Punch is joined by the refreshing Through The Grapevine, made of Pisco Italia, Sauvignon Blanc, lime and lychee. The brands of pisco on offer include Oro, Barsol, Cascajal. Give the Peruvian beer Cusquenna a spin too.

P.S. keep it schtum but maybe that back room will be used for a sneaky new bar sometime in the future…

Chicha Berlin, Friedelstraße 34, 12047 Berlin

5) Chicago Williams Grill – Beers ‘n’ Wings

A bartender’s favourite since its 2012 opening, Chicago Williams Grill is both a place for working your meat sweats and your beer belly. Owned by Nawid Samawat and located on Mitte’s Hannoversche Straße, Chicago Williams Grill boasts an incredible list of mainly German beers, including Ratsherrn, Schönramer, and their own branded Chicago Williams Hell und Dunkel. Paired with some of those famous wings, or a lip-smacking philly cheese steak sandwich, it’s full-blooded Americana putting its middle finger up at the Reinheitsgebot and the unadventurous beers of days past.

Expect a constantly buzzy atmosphere, with a reservation almost always a necessity.

Chicago Williams Grill, Hannoversche Str. 2, 10115 Berlin

Credits

Foto: Steak & Cocktail via Shutterstock. Post: Tim Klöcker

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