Berlin Guide - Part One
In this series, CONTU founder and editor-in-chief Katharina Müller shares her 10 personal favourite places in Berlin for drinking and eating, experiencing culture and art, for watching people and being surrounded by nature.
For over 8 months I have been working and living in Berlin while curating VOLUME 1 and I have enjoyed the plentitude of options this exciting city has to offer. In this guide series I will be sharing my favourite addresses and places I have encountered and since then have come back many times again.
Reading time: 5 minutes
Places for a vegetarian and oriental feast.
Zula Hummus Café
Zula in Prenzlauer Berg offers all the delicacies you would wish for in a Middle Eastern feast. While Hummus the Israeli way may be the main star of this very homely place, the menu invites you to join its culinary journey and eat your way through all the savory dishes. This is a favourite place for very good Hummus, Labneh and Falafel, the occasional Shakshuka or baked cauliflower.
@zula_berlin
Husemannstraße 10, Prenzlauer Berg
Nearby U-Bahn Seestraße in Wedding, this Imbiss (snack bar) offers various Middle Eastern delicacies - great for any vegetarian. Take your Falafel to the nearby park Schillerpark or sit down on one of the seats outside this laid-back and friendly neighbourhood favourite.
Seestraße 100, Wedding
Places for breakfast or coffee.
Café Morgenduft
On busy and hectic Warschauer Straße in Friedrichshain, this quiet and homely café is a treasure. It is genuine, friendly and invites you to slow down once you stepped off Warschauer Straße. Come here to enjoy a solid breakfast and watch the neighbourhood collect their morning coffees.
@cafemorgenduft
Warschauer Straße 60, Friedrichshain
The sisterhood café of Annelies has everything you would wish for in a breakfast or even lunch spot. Their quality food and coffee and the lovely and inviting environment will make you want to come happily.
@distriktcoffee
Bergstraße 68, Mitte
Where to get a glass of wine. (and some bits to eat, too)
This very cosy natural wine bar in Mitte’s Winskiez has a wide selection of natural wines and comforting food that is pleasing to the eye, too.
@kontraer.berlin
Winsstraße 43, Mitte
A book set in Berlin.
“Undercurrents” by Kristy Bell
Kirsty Bell is a British-American writer and art critic who has based herself in Berlin. From a 1869 house on the Landwehr Canal in Berlin, she tells a story that is memoir, biography and criticism in one, as she turns to the lives of the house’s inhabitants such as Rosa Luxemburg, Irmgard Keun, Walter Benjamin, Gabriele Tergit, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
A bookstore.
Marga Schoeller Bücherstube
This treasure trove in Charlottenburg is a bookstore for book enthusiasts by book enthusiasts, filled to the brim with German and English titles. Founded in 1929 on Kurfürstendamm by Marga Schoeller, the book store has moved to Knesebeckstraße in 1972 and has been in the same premises since.
Knesebeckstraße 33, Charlottenburg
Where to work.
Erchy's | Coffee & Plants
In Mitte, Erchy’s is a lovely and friendly café with an integrated and designated work area, where you can sit down on the long wooden table surrounded by lots of green plants and enjoy a very good coffee while doing your work. The menu has some fantastic and vegan breakfast and lunch options for you as well to take your breaks and you might want to stay longer than you expected.
@erchy.s
Choriner Straße 84, Mitte
(HeartSpace Coffee + Co-Working space)
HeartSpace is a family-run co-working space with different membership passes to choose if you need a working station in an inviting space. The adjacent café is open to everyone to spend a few hours while working away, meeting other co-workers and enjoy their coffee and food.
@heartspace
Urbanstraße 71, Kreuzberg
A place to take a breather.
Rummelsburger Bucht
Berlin has various accessible green spaces within the city, but his urban oasis has become particularly special to me. This bay in the Berlin area Rummelsburg, bordering the neighborhoods Friedrichshain and Lichtenberg is an idyllic spot and only a stone throw away from the bustle. It’s a peaceful area, great for walks along river Spree or for finding a place to sit down on one of the benches or right at the water watching boats go by and let your mind wander as you gaze on the shimmering light on the water - and take a deep and long breather.
