Tag Archives: bars

The Scene loves Craft Beer

The shortcut to a German’s heart is made of hop, malt, yeast and water. Yep, we love our beer! It’s delicious, nutritious and makes everyone around you look so much better. While Germany’s industrial-made beer is still considered holy by most, Berlin’s creative heads have started taking things into their own hands. Literally. Self-brewed craft beer is taking the city by storm. New breweries, bars and pubs open up by the day. If you’re a man (or woman) of culture, do not hesitate to try these amazing treats of German taste-engineering. Berlin is a big city – so where to start? Here’s a list of must-visits for your next sophisticated pub crawl. Prost!

BRLO
Before you ask – it’s pronounced BARE-LOW. Yep, we did ask. Located in a spacious container structure in Gleisdreieckpark, BRLO is a slightly hipsterish brewhouse and aspiring beer brand alike. With their laid-back park view and delicious brews, the trendy hotspot is the perfect location for cozy summer beers. Since beer gardens and cold temperatures don’t go together very well, they also boast a cozy indoor area with a fabulous food concept: shared vegetarian dishes with meat as sides.

Stone Brewing
Hold on tight and try not to drool – at Stone Brewing you choose between 65 beers off the tap! Their selection is big, the location is bigger. 2400sqm, up to 1200 guests and a 100-hectolitre brewing machine. Think big. Can you guess where CEO and co-founder Greg Koch might be from? Of course. USA! It seems he knows a thing or two about gastronomy – for the food concept, he hired Robert Hilges, who has worked for Ritz-Carlton and Adlon. Now he’s turning Stone Brewing into a delicious „world bistro“ in the heart of Mariendorf.

Kaschk
Ever heard of shuffleboard? It’s an American board game where players use a cue to push discs down a narrow court, which comes to rest in a score area with different points. Now imagine a top-notch craft beer pub around that board and voila – you have a recipe for fun evenings with your friends. Kaschk is Germany’s first bar to offer shuffleboard, along with a prime selection of Norwegian craft beer and fresh coffee from a filter holder.

Brewdog Mitte
Brewdog is a Scottish brewhouse chain. While we didn’t spot anyone wearing kilts (awww), they offer a selection of 30 draft lines of beer from German and global breweries. Brewdog Berlin’s boss Dean Pugh successfully ran the dependencies in London and Manchester, where they attract a young-professional crowd aged 25-40. Much like in Berlin. The main difference: Londoners start drinking at 6pm, Berliners at 11pm. Why? You don’t go to Berghain before 4 in the morning, and drinking beer for 10 hours is a challenge even for us.

The Castle Berlin
The Castle isn’t your usual hipster craft beer address. They reserve 6 taps for pubs’ classics: Kilkenny, Guiness, Cider and Pils. That’s because owners Ben Fisher and Gekko (yeah, Gekko) were born in Berlin – they know what people like. They also know you have to go with the flow – in this case, that means letting home-brewed craft beer flow into thirsty customers’ glasses. In their Mitte pub, they fit up to 200 people on a sunny terrace. Don’t worry if you stay too long – their morning coffee is just as good as the beer.

Braufactum
16 taps, 300 seats, indoor and outdoor area, located right on Alexanderplatz. What could go wrong? At Braufactu, everything is set for success. They boast expert German brewmasters working with international partner breweries. You can taste their love for brewing – but you can also learn from it: there are beer tastings, workshops and an inhouse Braufactu store to quench your thirst for knowledge (and beer).

Keen for a beer or two? You can learn even more abut Berlin’s craft beer bars here. If you really want to get under the skin of Berlin’s craft beer scene, don’t hesitate to sign up for our private Craft Beer Tours. We’ll show you the trendiest bars and bottles the city’s beer geeks are obsessed with.
Price: from 450 euro / 3 hour tour
Inclusions: Visits to 3 beer bars, private brewery tour, beer tasting, city tour (between stops), public transportation, private guide and lots of insider tips about Berlin’s craft beer scene.

Send request to info@berlinagenten.com

 

On Tour with Visit Berlin and Taiwanese media and tour operators

Visit Berlin does an amazing job of exporting Berlin as a premier tourism destination all around the world. Berlinagenten partners with Visit Berlin when it comes to showing both journalists and travel industry professionals, the very best that Berlin’s gourmet scene has to offer with our famous Gastro Rallye’s.

Visit Berlin, in association with the Taiwanese office of the DB Bahn were hosting 10 of Taiwan’s top media and tourist industry professionals. The group had been travelling around Germany for a week by train. Now it was a chance to see Berlin! Berlinagenten curated a programme that showcased Berlin’s amazing culinary scene at the city’s finest restaurants.

On board for the tour was Visit Berlin’s Joyce Olivia Bernitt, who organises the programmes for incoming tour operators and Claudia Sult from the Visit Berlin Press Office.

After being picked up by a luxury bus, we started our tour at Volt, where head Chef Matthias Gleiß interprets traditional Berlin dishes and German classics into a gourmet’s delight. Next, it was onto new French hotspot Restaurant Richard for our main course before we had dessert at the trendy Sage restaurant. By the end of the night, eight out of our ten guests had fully embraced the Berlin spirit and were last seen heading into Tresor Night Club, despite having an early morning flight home! Our mission was complete!

Photos: Lollie Barr & Steven Hsu

The Scene meets Eins 44

Something is stirring in deepest, darkest Neukölln. Better known for its kebab houses than an innovative food scene, things are certain to change with the launch of the brand new restaurant Eins 44 Kantine.

Tucked away in an art deco courtyard, you would never know this place existed. Yet after Berlinagenten tested out the menu, it’s guaranteed Berliners will be heading west and hitting the backstreets of Neukölln in the hope of seeking it out. Restaurant manager Jonathan Kartenberg and head chef Sebastian Radtke, were formerly at another one of favourite restaurants, Mani. The cuisine grounds itself in French basics, yet the exciting young team have updated it and then infused it with international flavours to create something brand new.

For a new restaurant, we were impressed by the ambiance that makes this place feel like a familiar cozy neighbourhood eatery, but all the while being highly stylised. The two story building was originally a distillery, so there is a spacious modern, post industrial feel. Its original tiled walls, ceiling and impressive bar, acquired vintage lamps, wooden tables and chairs that date back 30 years combine together to create a very lived-in, cool atmosphere. Being Berlin, naturally smokers are accommodated in the form of smokers’ room, which features a massive wooden table on a turbine engine. 

We were certainly impressed by the food. To get our mouths watering, we started out with a gift from the kitchen, a dainty yet delicious mini Pork Belly Burger. First course, we decided on a delicious light crusted Golden Trout with granny smith apple and radish salad, along with a tender Beef Carpaccio with asparagus, grapefruit and a hint of coriander. For the main course, it was a speciality French pork done two ways, with a delightful cauliflower puree, and we also shared a perfectly grilled piece of prime entrecôte with potatoes and beans. Heaven arrived in the form of a 70% percent chocolate brownie cake with rosemary pineapple, mint and strawberry coulis for dessert.

Now for the very good news, despite the quality and the ambience, Eins 44 is very reasonably priced. A three course meal costs 33 euros, four courses is 42 euros and five courses just 51 euros. Or you can buy individual courses. It is complimented with a fine French and German wine list.

Eins 44 is definitely buzzing on our new Berlin restaurant radar! We honestly can’t wait to return.

HOW BERLINAGENTEN INVENTED THE GASTRO-RALLYE

Food can make or a break a visit to a new city. But how do you find the rare gems, the temples of gastronomy, the restaurants of the moment that crackle with an electric atmosphere? Well, you could always look online. However, chances are you’ll find a restaurant with good reviews but on arrival you find the waitress getting drunk on her own tears of boredom in an empty restaurant because the critiques were from 2011 before that regrettable food poisoning epidemic.

Or you spend hours traipsing around aimlessly looking into restaurant windows trying to decide on where to go, then by the time you make your decision you can’t get a table. Even worse, you consult your guide book and find yourself in a restaurant full of tourists wearing bum bags and baggy track pants complaining loudly that the food is better back home.

It was 10 years ago that Henrik started Berlinagenten after coming up with a very unique idea – the Gastro-Rallye. The idea being guests get to sample between three and four of Berlin’s finest restaurants in a one night. At each hand picked restaurant, you not only get to experience a different course but you also get pick on a different scene, a different vibe with the guarantee of fabulous food and atmosphere.

What makes it so special is your personal guide. We pride ourselves on hiring well-informed guides with big personalities. You will walk off each course between restaurants as your guide gives you an insight into the local area, as well as fabulous insider tips that will make your stay all the more special.

Due to Berlinagenten‘s contract with Visit Berlin, more than 1500 journalists have been on a Gastro-Rallye and we are constantly covered in print and on TV. Our clients include jet setters from New York’s upper East side, Hollywood types, corporates, bonding family groups, loved up couples, and everyone else in between. So it is no wonder that Berlinagenten has exported the concept to other destinations outside Germany.

Check out the Berlinagenten Tour Shop for more information.

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Red Carpet … Henrik’s world

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In pursuit of the highest ideal of red carpet partying, our fearless leader Henrik will go to extreme lengths to make sure he knows the hip and happening of Berlin.

  • Berlin is always hot-to-trot but this was one, very naughty evening, even for us! First stop was Playboy night at The Pearl. There was no sign of Hugh Hefner is his dressing gown but there was copious amounts of flesh on display as Playboy Bunnies strode around, as well as burlesque performances. Next, we went to Insomnia, the infamous fetish and sex club at Templehof. Dominique, the owner of the club and Germany’s foremost dominatrix, had invited us to her birthday party! How could we possibly refuse a dominia without getting a severe spanking? We stripped down to the bare minimal and danced the night away, as people all around us were getting down and dirty. Yes, that means exactly what you think it means!

 

  • Berlinale always means parties, premiers and star spotting! Eventually, all the red carpets blur into one dazzling red rug, the size of Berlin! Soho House was the epicenter of everything, as usual. The Oscar nominated ‘American Hustle After Party’ took place in the Soho House basement with stars Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, and Topmodel Toni Garrn in attendance. Soho House also made the most of their fabulous new loft spaces for the party after the premier of Monuments Men, as A-listers George Clooney, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, Matt Damon attended. Rumour has it that George Clooney was seen trying to get into the Olympic Fruits party but we can neither confirm or deny this.
  • Kreuzberg gets trendier and trendier, by the day. The once trashy area is now turning into the place to go five-star bar hopping. Offering some high camp glam is the Prinzipal. Berlinagenten went to the opening party. Like the best bars in Berlin, there is no sign. However once you enter into the long, thin bar, it’s like stepping back into the roaring twenties.  There are two floors, upstairs is a fabulous bar, with a burlesque acts including a girl on a cloud swing high above the patrons heads as the uber cool bar staff, the girls in corsets, the boys in suits made old school cocktails. We loved the make-up table downstairs, so if you’re looking a little rough you canready to take on the night once again.
  • It was the opening that the entire city wanted to get invited to – 25 hours launching their fabulous new hotel – 25 hours Bikini Berlin! They didn’t disappoint with a two-day non-stop party with over 3000 invited guests coming to check out the new hotel. The whole building was made into a party space as the media, hotel and hospitality industry, local celebs and hardcore party people invaded every floor. Every available space was turned into a bar, dance-floor or food station, including an oyster bar, a falafel station, a dessert bar, as well as the 25 Hours signature Neni restaurant, turning out delicious food.There were DJ’s rocking dance floor in the sky sauna, drinks in the corridors and in the bedrooms, where we were encouraged to test out the beds! Most of the action took place in the Monkey Bar, which has in just weeks, cemented itself as the bar to be seen at in Berlin. With performers roaming around the hotel, fire jugglers and fire works, dancing until sunset, the 25 hours Bikini Berlin have set the bar pretty high for the party of the year. For more photos click here

     

     

BERLIN FOR THE OVER 30’S

Berlin is renowned for its nightlife and that doesn’t just mean for the young. If you’re over 30, here’s the perfect itinerary for a wild Berlin night out. 

Start with a dinner at the former Bötzow brewery, home of La Soupe Populaire. This post-industrial restaurant is tucked away behind raw concrete, rusty pipes and iron doors but the food is amazing and and the menu is created by no less than celebrity chef Tim Raue himself. After dinner, check out the newest venue on the partying strip of Torstrasse – The Bonbon bar, which attracts a mature, stylish and international crowd. Apart from the beautiful art deco interior, don’t miss a visit to the fabulous loo.

After 1 am it´s time to move on to the next level and order the legendary medicine bottle filled with vodka at the hip Trust Bar. Once you have passed the picky door policy, step into a world that reflects the golden era of the 90’s, when the clubs were trashy-chic, retro, inspiring, wild, and very sexy! If you don´t trust your capacity to drink vodka like a Berliner at 5am, it´s time for real clubbing.

Change out of your killer heels and dress Berlin super cool grunge before you arrive to the superlative techno temple Berghain. Be prepared to wait in the queue. They may let you in, or they may not, it’s that kind of place. A Berlinagenten By Night is the best way to have access to coolest bars and clubs in the city. Then you can really live it, smell it, touch it and taste the City like a true local.