Weinerei

Weinerei is a phenomenon and everybody who is there for the first time wonders how this principle can work:  You pay one €uro to become a club member for one evening (a reminiscent of the wild days of illegal clubs in Berlin) and get a glass. Now you can try the different wines at the bar and just serve yourself. One simple meal is offered in the evenings, during daytime you can get coffee and choose between different cakes and a variety of pastries for very fair prices. And now -tataa! At the end you pay as much as you think it was worth it. Really. And it seems to work. (Ok, the waiters pay attention that this price is a reasonable one.) Some years ago all this was a bit easier, you could even take a whole bottle to your table if you liked this certain wine a lot, and nobody checked how much you payed. But this was when Weinerei was a bit more hidden and not mentioned in Lonely Planet and every single guide to Berlin… So watch out, this place is usually packed. Nowadays Weinerei has grown to a real Wine-imperium including a shop opposite, a restaurant “Fra Rosa” (some meters up the road at Zionskirchstr. 40), a branch at Kollwitzstr. (“Loch”) and “Perlin”, a “Teatro Privat” behind the Zionskirche. For details check out the webpage!  Weinerei “Forum”, Fehrbelliner Str. 57 (Ecke Veteranenstr.), Berlin-Mitte (but feels like Prenzlauer Berg…) Mon – Sun 1oam – 12pm | www.weinerei.com

Sorry…

Hi there, sorry for being so quiet this week. Next week will be more intersting. 

Snail Office

Usually offices move invisibly. Not so if Platoon does: like a snail they like to take their house with them. Seems a convenient way to escape the annoying packing… The new location is Linienstraße/Ecke Alte Schönhauser Straße. If you want to know what Platoon does, check www.platoon.org

The Dog Indicator

Compared to other capitals, Berlin is a very slow city. There are very few areas where you have the feeling of hectic metropolis life as you know it from London, for example. The following collection of “dogs at the window” may seem to have been assembled in the suburbs – actually all photos have been taken in Mitte, in the very center of Berlin.

Charlottenburg

Yesterday I made an excursion to the far west, to Charlottenburg, braveley trying to ignore the horrible frostiness outside. To make it short, I was not very successful (neither ignoring nor taking photos of any cool shop). To be honest I think I am not the right guide for Charlottenburg. To me it looks as if Charlottenburg had no fresh, innovative shops but either high street chain stores or REALLY expensive ones, with doormen. There is definitely something to that, but just not what I am looking for. So I decided that this was it with Charlottenburg. If anybody knows about cool and interesting shops or bars there, please let me know. I would be happy to learn. However, the shop I wanted to show you is a shop for “urban milkware and chocolate” and has, to my regret, recently moved to a mall. It still looks nice and designed and appetizing and things, but malls are simply not my cup of tea. To crown it all (the frostiness, the long way, the mall!) the shop assistants unfortunately didn’t feel authorised to allow me to take photos inside… To make my way not completely of no earthly use, I walked up and down several times, trying to take photos from outside inconspicuously. Here’s the result:To get some better impression, check also www.linakrokant.de (there you can find also photos of the old shop). Other interesting things in Charlottenburg: the dental surgery KU64 [take a 3D-tour here] and the Bisazza showroom [click "Flagshipstores" and choose "Berlin" from the list to view the images] | Lina Krokant, Wilmersdorf Arcaden, Wilmersdorfer Str. 46, 10627 Berlin – Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf  |Ku64, Kurfürstendamm 64, 10707 Berlin – Charlottenburg  |Bisazza, Kantstr. 150, 10623 Berlin – Charlottenburg 

Slurping at Susuru

Susuru means “to slurp” in japanese, and this is exactly what you are supposed to do at this stylish noodle soup restaurant. If you find slurping unstylish, don’t bother: the better the food, the louder you slurp in Japan (at least I was told so). To avoid spots on your business dress, take one of the pinafores which have been thoughtfully placed under the tables. You can slurp at high tables in the front, or at huge low round tables in the back. The tables are white, in contrast to the very dark brown walls. I really like the look of these walls, like the bar they are tiled in a very special pattern. The material used is linoleum which looks softer and smoother than ceramics. More phots at their webpage (link see below)Susuru, Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 17, 10178 Berlin Mitte, Mon – Sun 11.30am – 11.30pm, www.susuru.de 

Brunnenstrasse

As Promised: Wedding Dress#2, #2

See, I keep my promises. I went again to Wedding. Just for you. And a bit for my pleasure, too. The festival café is a really nice hang out, what a pitty that it will close soon:short introduction what it is all about: Brunnenstraße is a main road connecting the districts Mitte and Wedding. Till 1989, it was divided by the Wall, Wedding was in the west, Mitte in the east. That’s why the two parts of Brunnenstraße have developped in a completely different way and look very different today. The Wedding side is dominated by post-war architecture, in Mitte you still have the old pre-war “Gründerzeithäuser” which are much more popular. Although nowadays only Bernauer Straße separates the two parts, it seems as if there was still an invisible border. While more and more fashion shops and galleries open in the Mitte part, Brunnenstraße in Wedding suffers from vacancies. That’s why DEGEWO, owner of a large number of real estate there, has initiated the festival Wedding dress. The buildings at Brunnenstraße:Some Festival participants: Styleserver shop: So far, stylesever existed only as online store. This is the first physical store and it will remain here at Brunnenstraße also after the festival. Openings times not fixed yet, for sure it will be opened on saturdays. For more information have a look at www.styleserver.de   At this branch of Flagshipstore, specialised in young international labels and originally based in Oderbergerstraße, Prenzlauer Berg, all furniture is “100% recyclingdesign” which you can also order. More info at e.g. www.recyclingboerse.org. I love the chairs!   Attracting especially the kids of the neighbourhood: “Create your own shirt”.Your shirt can sing: Trikoton-Collection, a project by media artists Magdalena Kohler and Hanna Wiesener: The “Gelsomnia”-knitting machine transmits the individual melody of a voice to clothes where it will create a pattern.  www.trikoton.com  At Royal.We., Sandy Gessner presents her diploma in illustration and graphic design. More info at herspace 

Wedding Dress #2

The district called “Wedding” is not exactly known for being very hip, stylish or en vogue. Actually, this former West district has a rather bad reputation. However, there is something interesting going on these days in Wedding: The Festival Wedding Dress#2, a festival of “urban fashion and arts” (that’s what the homepage says), taking place in 25 shops on Brunnenstraße. The festival is nearly over (sorry for being late). I’ll go there again tomorrow and get us some more text and photos, ok? See you.

Wedding Dress #2, Brunnenstr. Ecke Bernauer bis Ecke Lortzingstr., 25.01. – 10.02. | www.weddingdress2.de  

adidas

Some posts ago I told you that the adidas Originals store was being renovated. It re-opened two days ago, and this is the result: I liked the mixed media wall part of which you can become for some time: the big frame in the middle is the “photographer”; your image will then appear in one of the other frames. What is new and special is the possibility to create and order your absolutely personal adidas shoe. Time between creation and delivery is 3 weeks.