Hangover, anyone? Right this way!
Breakfast, brunch or hair of the dog – ten spots in Berlin where Bar Convent Berlin attendees with even the most harrowing of hangovers will find the perfect food and/or drink options for “what ails ye”. We give you an overview here of hangover havens ranging from gritty Berlin tradition to contemporary clubby to the most uppity of upper-crusty.
Nutritional experts are known for citing breakfast as the most important meal of the day. For bartenders, breakfast often comes at lunch or even dinnertime. And why not? Folks who are finally getting home when most others are just waking up with their morning shower think in other dimensions. It really doesn’t matter when you have breakfast, as long as you have it. Sometimes there’s really nothing to beat a fresh coffee in the bright sunshine, with fresh-squeezed orange juice destined not for a Blood & Sand as usual, but for your own bloodstream for once. While you’re in town for the Bar Convent, keep these ten places in mind for the full range of delicious breakfast and hangover remedy possibilities when an aspirin or two just won’t do.
1 Café Einstein Stammhaus
This is a place that looks the way you felt last night, not the way you feel this morning. With its classic West Berliner opulence, Café Einstein Stammhaus brings a touch of class to your aching head and unsteady hands. Sipping coffee and eating pastries (or bacon and eggs) amongst all the gilt-edging and marble will make you feel like you drank yourself back to the 1920s. And up above the café itself is Lebensstern, one of Berlin’s best cocktail bars, just in case you feel like a little hair of the dog that bit you.
Kurfürstenstraße 58, 10785 Berlin (Tiergarten)
Daily from von 8:00 a.m. to midnight
2 Rogacki
With his bestselling book “Kitchen Confidential”, Anthony Bourdain paved the way for today’s star chefs and celebrity foodie tourists. Bourdain himself has boldly proclaimed that Rogacke, originally opened in 1928 by Paul und Lucia Rogacki as a smoked foods shop, has the best food in Germany. We’re not given to hype here at Mixology, but Rogacki is certainly a top tip for a breakfast that will straighten you out lickety-split, no matter what condition you’re in. Imagine it as a gourmet snack bar from the 70s with loyal regulars in their 70s, chilled champagne with a wine advisor in a lab coat, and smoked delicacies to die for. A world away from Neukölln’s hipster pancakes, you can heal your hangover here with a smoked salmon filet steak, deli cheese, wild game dishes and more mouthwatering fresh fish specialties than you can shake last night’s swizzle stick at. A real piece of Berlin’s heart in the heart of Berlin.
Wilmersdorfer Str.145/46, 10585 Berlin (Charlottenburg)
Monday – Wednesday, Friday 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
3 Café Dujardin
People in big cities love spreading the word about little-known oases and hideaways off the beaten track. And often enough they really are out of the way. Almost as often, that’s where their food and drinks belong – out of the way. Not so with Café Dujardin. Near a quiet pond in Berlin’s Wedding district the yummy breakfast fare here consists of organic foods or ethically farmed meatballs. And if you want to namedrop to your friends back home, Olafur Eliasson, ranked No. 7 in the annual ratings of the world’s most popular living artists, has his own regular table here. And oh yeah, yes, there really is a Dujardin.
Monday – Friday from 10:00 a.m.
Saturday & Sunday from 11:00 a.m.
Uferstrasse 12, 13357 Berlin (Wedding)
4 La Femme
In Berlin you’ll find Turkish or Turkish-inspired grill cuisine everywhere you look. But the same can’t be said about Turkish breakfast. La Femme has this niche covered. Simit (sesame rings), cakes and pastries are prepared fresh here every day, spicy Sucuk sausage and scrambled eggs cover the hearty side of things and the delicious Sütlac rice pudding will satisfy any sweet tooth. Baked potatoes are also a specialty of the house. For the culturally insecure among you, no worries, women with headscarves eat and laugh at the same table as those without at La Femme. And speaking of the tables, for some reason they’re ridiculously comfy here, decoratively fitted with wagon wheels and somehow reminiscent of a saloon. Every visit leaves you thinking “This place would make a great bar”.
Daily 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Kottbusser Damm 77, 10967 Berlin (Neukölln)
5 Schwarzes Café
A true culinary Elder Statesmen through good times and bad, the Schwarze Café near Savignyplatz has reigned over Berlin’s west since 1978. From its observation point on the first upper floor the café watched as Berlin fled east after the fall of the Berlin Wall, only to slowly turn its attention back to the west in recent years. The Schwarzes Café has persisted here through it all. Around the clock. While it’s no longer exactly the same left-wing artist hangout it was in the early days, the colorful neon parrot that’s hung here since the heady hangovers of the 80s still persists as well. A classic!
Open 24 hours except Tuesdays from 3:00 to 10:00 a.m.
6 House of Small Wonder
Those less interested in Berlin’s medieval architecture than its rep as a progressive global metropolis of expats and start-up masterminds like Rocket Internet’s Samwer brothers, headquartered just around the corner, will want to head straight to the House of Small Wonder on Friedrichstraße. Berlin’s branch of the original Japanese-inspired restaurant founded in 2010 in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg district features irresistible homemade bread, croissants and locally sourced organic ingredients. The All Day Brunch includes granola yoghurt, apple-fed pork and Tex-Mex delights, all served up in a bright, warm atmosphere. And here’s a tip: Check out the cozy, intimate Zenkichi Japanese brasserie downstairs where dinner is served daily from 6 p.m.
Monday – Sunday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Johannisstraße 20, 10117 Berlin (Mitte)
7 Hotel am Steinplatz
Also home to a highly-respected Berlin bar, fewer people are aware of the fact that this luxury hotel with its magnificent turn-of-the-(last)-century façade also offers delectable à la carte breakfasts. A selection of intriguing French toast varieties, poached eggs with cucumber salad and sourdough rolls is just the beginning. Gourmet chef Stefan Hartmann supervises knock-out bar food that’s available around the clock. And a Breakfast of Champions? How about wild game bratwurst, pork knuckle croquets or Violett Pommes paired up with a craft beer side?
Steinplatz 4, 10623 Berlin (Charlottenburg)
Monday – Friday 6:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Saturday – Sunday 7:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
8 The California Breakfast Slam
A recent spate of big, brightly colored billboards was catching everyone’s eye all over town. The explosive collages featured 20th century versions of either Arnold Schwarzenegger or Luke Skywalker with fried eggs as eyes and the caption, “The California Breakfast Slam”. Speculation as to whether this was a new surf-punk band or a trashy B, C, or D movie proved futile. In fact, it is what it says: breakfast. Homemade pancakes und tortillas, shakshouka (Israeli poached eggs) and Deep Southern biscuits (as opposed to what the British stubbornly continue to call cookies!) are idyllically housed here in Neukölln atmosphere at its best. Cocktails like the Cabslammed Mary featuring chili-infused vodka and Tommy’s Margarita are served up here from 10 a.m. Just in time!
Innstraße 47, 12045 Berlin (Neukölln)
Daily from 10 a.m. “until the barflies go home”
9 Grosz Berlin
Laminate flooring should be charged with crimes against humanity’s cultural heritage, because when you rip it up you’re likely to find real treasures. Cumberland House, home to the Grosz Berlin coffee house, can testify to this. Once the original early 1900s marble and parquet flooring was revealed, it was as if this palace of the Belle Epoque had been reborn in its former glory. Breakfast here consists of homemade croissants, coffee and tea served in the finest porcelain and tableware. Lunch continues luxuriously until 3 p.m. Sitting here feels oddly like relaxing in the lounge on the Titanic before it set sail while watching the Kudamm’s accustomed jet-setters do what they do out the window.
Kurfürstendamm 193 / 194, 10707 Berlin
Monday – Friday: 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m.
Saturday – Sunday: 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 a.m.
10 Kater Blau
“Kater” is the German word for tomcat, but it can also mean hangover, and while “Blau” means the color blue, it’s also slang for being drunk! So Kater Blau was an obvious shoo-in for this list. At this cultural, clubbing and culinary complex yummy food options are available at Cantina, Märchenwald and Schweizer Hütte, and not just in the morning. But morning is an odd concept at Kater Blau anyway. As the successor to the infamous but now defunct Bar 25 and Kater Holzig, Kater Blau is a place where the period from Friday to Monday is, well…relative! Electronic music permeates the air, the cocktails are simple and the story of how this place and the wonderful weirdoes behind it beat out the flock of property speculator vultures who were prone to pick its bones is riveting. And oh yeah, the Kater-Kiosk also has sweets. Breakfast by any other name!
Holzmarktstraße 25, 10243 Berlin (Friedrichshain)
Original article by Stefan Adrian, translation by Jeff J. Collier.
Credits
Foto: Photo via Shutterstock.
