Tag Archives: Skykitchen

Red Carpet – Henrik’s World of Glamour

It’s been a while since we last reported about our sinful little weekends maneuvers, but that’s just because we’re always working or drinking. Or both. It is our self proclaimed noble duty to visit the city’s flashiest red carpets and help empty the champagne stocks where we can. And all just for you! Promise. Here’s the hottest openings of the past months.

Bricole
Prenzlauerberg’s buggy-pushing-vegan-moms, rejoice! The district of soy milk frappucinos and sky-high rents now boasts its own distinctive gourmet temple. With Bricole, former Borchardt restaurant manager Fabian Fischer sets sail for new culinary horizons. The opening night revealed an atmospheric Hors ­d’œu­v­re-Bar with a tasty stronghold: wonderful bite-sized portions inspired Paris’ culinary delights, just without the stiffness. The only thing you won’t find at Bricole are main courses.

Interview Magazine Party
Ever since Andy Warhol founded INTERVIEW magazine in 1969, their parties put people’s livers to the test. Naturally our livers weren’t exactly thrilled when we received an invitation to the German spin off’s 5 year jubilee. But it’s hard to say no when the party takes place at Provocateur, Berlin’s brand new burlesque hotel. Red plush, international top DJs and a Russian oligarch as sponsor attracted celebs from Dr. Döpfner (CEO Springer) to TV icon Palina Rojinski.

Bulgari’s Night of the Legend Party
Befitting their reputation as an extravagant fashion label, guests of Bulgari’s Berlinale party were chauffeured in sleek brand-new Porsches. The party’s motto? “See and be seen”. The same as every fashion party’s. Ever. What most people don’t know: The A-list celebs just come for the red carpet. After that, they take off to the next paparazzi-loaded event and leave the party to the C-&D-list. Spotted on the carpet: Lottie Moss (Kate’s sister), Toni Garrn, Armie Hammer and Daniel Brühl.

GALA magazine Berlinale Party
Gala magazine loves gossip, but for celebrities it’s a love-hate relationship. On one hand they want privacy, on the other they crave attention. Gala’s grand Berlinale party definitely was a hotspot for attention seekers – the who-is-who of the film scene assembled to kick off this year’s Berlinale. Crowds of celebs shuffled down the red carpet, foremost Jean Paul Gaultier, who loves Berlin parties. In Paris, everyone’s too snobbish. Couldn’t agree more, Jean Paul. Now give us back our champagne glass.

RBB Xmas Special
It seems the word has gotten around that we’re a real door opener for nightlife reports. This time it was TV station RBB who asked us to show them how Berlin ticks when the sun goes down. We present: Berlin from 9pm to midnight.

Berlinagenten Luxury Award Party
We’re easily among the coolest lifestyle agencies in the milky way, so naturally we had to throw a big fat party to celebrate our award as “best culinary experience of the year” at Luxury Travel Guide. As true hedonists, we invited our partners to celebrate at sinful Sodom&Gomorra bar in Berlin-Mitte, where the nights are known to be just as long as dirty. The atmosphere was delightful until Henrik held his thank-you speech fuelled by no less than three moscow mules. After his speech, things went off the hook. Sword-swallowing Beautiful Jewels, pumping party classics and an everlasting supply of Berlin’s finest beverages assured the No. 1 Berlinagenten rule was enforced: no one goes home sober.

Eat BerlinMampes neue Heimat
According to lifestyle magazine Traveller’s World, Eat Berlin ranks among the 10 best gourmet festivals in the world. Tickets to their selected events are in high demand, so we were lucky to be invited to one of the coolest events to date – Skykitchen’s away game at MAMPE’s neue Heimat. Star cook Alexander Koppe’s 5-course menu was the perfect match for three distinctive Mampe drinks – a revived Schnapps label that can only be bought at the manufactory in Berlin.

The Scene meets Skykitchen

Lichtenberg’s dining scene usually isn’t known to be amongst the classiest, let alone to reach for new culinary heights. Michelin-Star chef Alexander Koppe and his team apparently didn’t care. Our visit to newly opened Skykitchen on the 12th floor of Berlin Andel’s Hotel did nothing short of blowing our tastebuds straight to heaven.

The place boasts a stylish, yet unpretentious interior design. Industrial chic meets Berlin cool. Add a magnificent panoramic view over the eastern part of the city and you’ll get a cosmopolitan touch that reminded us of the likes of New York and Los Angeles. International flair in the heart of Lichtenberg. Who would have thought?

In most fine dining restaurants you’ll find a crowd with their noses up in the air, their biggest concern is to decide if the driver should drive them home to Zehlendorf after dinner or if they swing by at China Club on the way. Skykitchen on the other hand attracts a very diverse, relaxed crowd. From families or just curious Berliners to gourmet chasing food-hipsters there’s everything to be found. They were a bunch of bankers or lawyers to our left (or maybe just car-dealers dressing up for the night) talking about the next big deal they’d make, while pink-haired Friederike and her husband Helmut to our right looked like they’d just crossed the street from one of the grey slab buildings to see how this new restaurant everybody talks about looks like from the inside. First time in a restaurant like this? Probably. Thought it would be this good? Never!

What makes Skykitchen so unique is the insane value for money you get. It’s common to adjust your prices accordingly when the kitchen receives a Michelin-Star, but their team decided to keep the prices stable. While you’ll pay up to 40€ per course (!) in many fine dining restaurants, Koppe’s inventive 3-course menu “From Berlin To The Sea” is to be had for reasonable 43€. Their french menu “Voyage Culinaire” starts at 52€ for 3 courses and goes up to 102€ for 8 courses. This catapults Skykitchen straight to number one on the value for money list. This is delicious high quality food as inexpensive as it gets!

After we were done receiving our little restaurant tour it was finally time for our favourite thing. Food.

As a little Amuse-Gueule we had the pleasure of devouring a roast potato creme with an almost fluid ox meat mash and a hint of sea buckthorn. The balance of the ingredients was nothing short of spectacular. Just when you thought your tongue had it all figured out, a touch of mustard would kick in and create a whole new taste altogether. Mindblowing!

With now high hopes for the actual courses, we leaned back and comfortably sipped away our choice selection of wines. With a total of 4 courses, we had it all covered: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and a tasty Riesling made sure we’d stay in the mood.

What followed was a constant exchange of plates and loud “ooohs” and “aaaahs”. It doesn’t matter if you settle for the Voyage Culinaire and the delicious Ohama Beef & Foie Gras with perigord truffle, mushrooms and celeriac, or for the From Berlin To The Sea menu, which offers reinter-preted Berlin dishes like rabbit from Beelitz with beetroot and marvellous sauces consisting of wild herbs and sour milk – you’ll find yourself eating your way from one culinary orgrasm to the next. Part of us hoped the steady supply of courses would never stop, but after lengthy 3 hours we had to take off before our trousers burst into shreds.

Here’s a list of the dishes we had:

Voyage Culinaire

Calamaretti And Rabbit

with brandade, baby lettuce, black garlic

Saint Pieere And Pancetta

with fava bean, raddichio, saffron

Étouffé Pigeon And Boudin Noir

with cauliflower, apricat, lemon verbena

Greater Ohama Beef And Foie Gras

with perigord truffle, mushrooms, celeriac

 

From Berlin To The Sea

Char From Grüneheide

with pickled cucumber, escabeche vegetables, pumpernickel

Rabbit From Beelitz

with beetroot, wild herbs, sour milk

Suckling Pig

with spreewälder sour cabbage, red pearl onion, grapes

Muesli “Berlin Style”

with cranberry, green apple, yoghurt