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Berlin in a nutshell. Peculiar mix of people - 70 year-old ladies in old-fashioned evening dresses and gentlemen in suits, urban bummers in Hugo Boss as well as crazy hipsters are to be seen in this old ballroom (existed since 1913) in the centre of Berlin.
Situated in a scraped building surrounded by numerous art galleries, the place was visited by Tom Cruise during his search for old-fashioned shooting locations for the film 'Valkyrie'. Good food and delicious home-made cakes. Music changes depending on the day (cha cha, swing, waltz and tango). In the summer, the garden is an additional attraction.
If you walk down the Auguststr (Berlin Mitte), you'll spot an enchanting garden and the scraped building behind it.
Clärchens Ballhaus, Auguststraße 24, Berlin Mitte.
www.ballhaus.de/
This Friedrichshain bar has great atmosphere. Relax in the shabby chic surroundings (standard lamps, rugs, armchairs and wine-coloured walls) and enjoy whittling away the hours listening to the eclectic soundtrack, sipping beer for under two euros. Friendly staff and chilled out clientele. Look out for the wooden bowls of tea (bit odd and bitter).
Macondo
Boxhanger Platz, Friedrichshain
Nice American-style cafe bar serving delicious food in the hip Schlesisches Str area in Kreuzberg.
Near Schlesisches Tor u-bahn
This is a nice cosmopolitan bar with a good selection of cocktails. You can find some of the local proms here drinking.
For those into something a little alternative (dub, indie, electronica etc), numerous small clubs around the Warschauer Strasse metro stop such as Cassiopeia and Rosis Bar are highly recommended. Relatively inexpensive with a great crowd and good music.
What any five-star cocktail bar should be like - very friendly ambience, excellent and friendly, yet reserved, barmen. Best whiskey sour I've had.
Best cocktail bar in Europe.
Potsdamer Straße 102 • 10785 Berlin
Telefon +49.30.2575 9977
www.victoriabar.de
It's a great example of an urban artists' collective, situated in an old crumbling department store from the turn of the century in the middle of the up-and-coming mitte district.
It houses many artists' galleries and workspaces where the public are free to wander and these are often turned into venues for impromptu parties.
There is a great outside space dotted with sculptures and beer served from an old VW van in the back and there's a cafe inside serving food from breakfasts to supper and coffees and hot chocolates and also a venue for live music. A wonderful space just to hang out.
arthouse tacheles
Oranienburger Str. 54
10117 Berlin
www.tacheles.de
It's a sort of lounge/nightclub. I think it is a restaurant during the day. I was stumbling around Zoologischer Garten on a Thursday night and some kid handed me a flyer which (out of character for me) I took and it said there was live music playing. So I went over there and when I went in I was really surprised. There was a great band doing covers of soul classics and some other things i didnt recognise with an amazing piano player (who looked like Pat from Saturday Night Live) who took solo after solo and did not disappoint. Not to mention that the place was very stylish, sheek but not expensive. Most people were sitting down and listening to the music but another group was dancing. I had a great time there and went back twice during that stay. I heartily reccomend it.
Kantstrasse 17
west on kantstrasse from the Zoo Station in Charlottenburg.
The bars and restaurants around Hakescher Markt & Oranienburger Strasse are great: lively venues offering good value with great service. The 'ladies of the night' plying their trade on Oranienburger Strasse was an eye opener.
However, under no circumstances visit 'Dante' in the row of restaurants situated in Hakescher Markt's S-Bhan station arches. We waited 50 minutes before we found that the kitchen had lost our order and a further 30 for the food to arrive, the staff were rude and at no point was an apology offered. This is not the norm as all other retsuarants in the area provided very friendly and efficient service.
In the Mitte. There are countless restaurants situated in and around the railway arches of Hakescher Markt's S-Bahn station, which is on lines; S-5, S-7, S-9.
It's an Irish pub showing sport. Not very exciting but friendly and convenient. A mix of ex-pats and locals.
Friedrichstrasse 112a
Berlin-Mitte
Telephone: 030 2828260
www.oscar-wilde-irish-pub.de
Stylish hotel, excellently located in Mitte, within walking distance of many of the key sights; alternatively, seconds from tram, U and S-bahn. Room design is trendy, with huge floor-ceiling windows. Amazing price-quality correlation. Hotel's cocktail lounge has extensive range of drinks. Breakfast not cheap (15EUR per person) but great selection, including delicious crispy bacon.
Oranienburger Strasse 52
U-bahn: Oranienburger Tor
www.arcotel.at/velvet.htm
Hot location with hot girls!!
Former film studios in south Berlin converted into an eco haven with organic bakery, bar and restauarant, outdoor performance space, artist studios and theatre.
The accommodation is basic but fun - the rooms have beds on a mezzanine and there's a large communal kitchen you share with performers. Great for the budget - conscious and a great insight into the real Berlin.
www.ufafabrik.de/en/nav.php
Viktoriastr. 10-18, 12105 Berlin / Tempelhof
Metro: U-6 right at the U-Bahnhof Ullsteinstrasse
I discovered this place by accident back in late autumn when I was having a break from uni. For some reason, I can't shake the place off, it left my girlfriend and I a bit jaded.
I think this place is supposed to be a political refuge or something - a front in the fight against the New World Order!
It smells quite bad so dont go in your clean holiday clothes or they will reek until you return home!
The second hand screen-printed clothing is dirty, cheap and unwearable. I haven't actually ever seen worse screen-printed clothing than this, so it's worth a look for this reason alone!
You can also pick up for next to nothing DVDs about 9/11 and NWO etc, which you can download from the net but can get here to save you time.
On the plus side, you can get a cheap drink there (coffee about 1 euro and a bottle of beer is about 1.50) and the WLAN is free, and at this time of year I guess it's somewhere to get out of the cold whilst planning to go somewhere else.
Whilst the rest of the world is moving on, here is an oasis of rebellion or something. But looking at the place I could not tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The regulars must have taken the red pill, go see for yourself.
rockstrasse, hackershermarkt strassenbahn, near Alexandreplatz bahnhof, and see for yourself thecoop.tv/
Brilliant cocktails and live jazz radio. Berlin is the only European city with its own 24-hour FM jazz station.
JazzRadio 101.9 broadcasts live every evening from 18.00 - 24.00 from its studio in the Hotel Bar, where you can see (and hear) the show go out live, presented by the station's cool young DJs.
Inge-Beisheim-Platz 1, S-Bahn Potsdamer Platz
A very nice and budget-friendly place in Berlin's most beautiful area. You can watch football and drink a very good latte or beer.
Start the party there before going to the Habermeyer which is very close. Both places are open all day and all night!
Gärtnerstraße, Friedrichshain.
S-Bahn-Station Warschauerstraße or Ostkreuz
The best place for a wild party. Open every day all night and very close to my other favourite place the Feuermelder, where you can watch football before starting the party. And on Sunday there is a very beautiful flea market around the corner. It's fantastic and budget-friendly.
Gärtnerstraße/ Friedrichshain. S-Bahn-Station Warschauerstraße or Ostkreuz
Hidden away in Berlin's laid back East Side, this back-of-a-boatshed haunt for recovering weekenders and general misfits exemplifies the best of Berlin's DIY bar culture. Comfily lo-fi, still manages a natural tree-covered canopy, a covered cinema, consistently brilliant music, and plenty of canalside seats (even if that means sitting in a boat). Staff are friendly and sound without being too-cool-for-school, and atmosphere will accommodate everyone happily, whatever your pleasure. Only in Berlin...
If the list of 'stylish yet chic wine bars' listed by my fellow sandal wearing media types on GU scare you as much as it does me, go to Lemke. It's a brew pub. It has beer. It has food. It has everything except DJs, cocktails and anything that could be described as 'charming or eclectic'.
The food is German in quantity and style but really the beer is what marks it out. The dark is very nice, the porter is excellent but the wheat is even better. It's friendly, it's always busy and it's easy to get to, even if the road it's on doesn't look very promising. There is even a beer garden.
It's between Hackischer Markt and Alexanderplatz on Dirckenstraße.
www.brauerei-lemke.de
www.brauerei-lemke.de/
The most bizarre drinking experience ever. Red wine in blood transfusion packs, electric shocks from tables, rotating bar stools, a tarantula in a glass case, a flasher at the entrance... and not too expensive either! Has to be seen to be believed.
Leibnitzstrasse 57 (50 metres from Ku'damm); U-Bahn: Adenauerplatz (U7);
tel: 030 32701466;
www.klo.de
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