Stil in Berlin

Berlin by the ocean.

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:01:00 +0000

What's missing in Berlin is huge and open water, as Hamburg has it. But who are we to complain.

At Home: Lisa van Houtem and Pelle Buys

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:30:00 +0000

The first person I visited during my short trip to Hamburg was Lisa, whom I already photographed in her apartment two years ago (with the same stool!). She left Berlin very soon after that and went back to the city where her home and heart is to live with her partner, Pelle Buys.
They moved into an apartment at Münzburg, that was built at the end of the 19th century and is the former home of Hamburg's mayor. Located in a small neighborhood just next to the main station, the huge, brick-stone building is the center of the small neighborhood and its activities. Lisa and Pelle live under the roof on two floors, with a spacious and open room on the lower floor, where the above picture was taken.

Food in Berlin: The Thai Market

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Mon, 21 May 2012 08:47:00 +0000

What I love about Berlin are its absurd phenomena which can be discovered off the beaten tracks, existing mostly only out of the generosity (or ignorance) of the municipal administration in (more or less) public spaces throughout the whole city. One of those is the Thai Market in Wilmersdorf. The park itself is rather random and definitely lacks the beauty of Tiergarten or Treptower Park, but it's nevertheless a central point of the Thai community in Berlin. Years ago, they started gathering here on weekends, bringing food and drinks, gambling, talking, and enjoying the sun. And what started out as a private gathering transformed into an open market happening on weekends, where you get some of the best home-made Thai food there is in Berlin.

On Saturdays and Sundays, old and young Thai women travel to the park, bringing frying pans, soup pots, bowls, and bottles, which they set up at small food stalls on the grounds. Protected from the sun by colorful umbrellas, they offer traditional Thai dishes from pad thai, fried fish and pork belly to sweet coconut tartlets and Thai iced tea. All you have to do is to bring a blanket, napkins and some money and you can start choosing your lunch. Many dishes are made fresh to your order and liking. Just take a look at what's on offer and ask for a portion. Most main dishes cost around 5 euros.

Of course, this is nothing for the persnickety, and some of the fish might not be very recommendable on a hot summer's day, but the atmosphere (and the very spicy papaya salad) is something you should not miss when you're in Berlin.

The Thai Market takes place every Saturday and Sunday at Preußenpark (Wilmersdorf), depending on the weather.
Metro: Fehrbelliner Platz.

Panorama of a Kreuzberg Afternoon

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Sat, 19 May 2012 17:49:00 +0000

Click to see the full picture.

Berlin in Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:19:00 +0000

Food in Berlin: Smart Deli

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:19:00 +0000

Another great Udon soup with a dainty aromatic broth at a favorite Udon place: Smart Deli, Chausseestraße 5, 10115 Berlin Mitte.

Food in Berlin: Yam Yam

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:03:00 +0000

A recommendation for a day in May, that's way too cold: Korean Kimchi soup at Yam Yam, Alte Schönhauser Straße 6, 10119 Berlin Mitte. A huge bowl filled with delicious broth and spicy Kimchi, accompanied by spinach in sesame sauce and rice will keep you warm until the sun comes back.

Interview: Zeina Durra

noreply@blogger.com (dario) — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Zeina Durra is a Bosnian-Palestinian-Jordanian-Lebanese filmmaker who was born and brought up in London and spent her 20s in New York. Her first feature, "The Imperialists Are Still Alive!" debuted at Sundance in 2010, and follows Asya, a young artist who shares the same ancestry as Durra, as she navigates through post-9/11 New York, while living in a glamorous world of fur coats, limousines, and private clubs in the back of noodle shops. I met up with Zeina while she was in town for the Biennale for a spontaneous interview outside KW.

DN: I find it funny that we're meeting here at the Biennale to discuss your film, which ostensibly deals with the 1%, while there's currently an Occupy encampment set up inside.

ZD: The film deals with more than just the 1%. It's dealing with the multi-faceted life of someone who comes from an unstable place of political turmoil, but is brought up, like me, in a comfortable family, and the situation that that puts you in. It's more nuanced. I try to deal with it in a humorous and self-deprecating way, revealing the absurdity of being in that situation. But there are many scenes which make it more complex, because one does have a bond with the 99% regardless of where you're from. That's just a basic human thing. So in the scene where Asya is sitting in the deli and listening to reports of bombings in Beirut together with the deli owners, there class and background don't matter, because everyone's in the same boat. The difference between her and them is that her family grew up with more luxury and access than the people in the deli's family did, but they ultimately share the same pain regarding what is going on, and that's link overcomes class and background.

DN: In the film, Asya is convinced that the CIA has abducted her childhood friend Faisal, a Saudi Arabian, from a Houston airport. So although she's living her life amongst the American elite, there is also a strong sense of distrust.

ZD: There's always a kind of tension. I was born and brought up in England, where I went to the top institutions like Oxford, and you're brought up with the very grandchildren whose ancestors actually screwed up where you come from. I dealt with the complexities of that through the irony of being brought up with the people who created the situations. So in a way you never feel like you're part of the that 1%.

DN: Asya shares the same background as you, except for being raised in Paris rather than London. Is it safe to say her character drawn from your own experiences?

ZD: The characters in the film were loosely based on me and some of the people I know, but I see them almost like a voice of a generation of diaspora -- People who are from a specific background, but are brought up abroad, and then assimilate.

DN: Did you feel a responsibility towards an accurate depiction of Middle Easterners during the writing process?

ZD: It was very difficult to write. People don't want to know about a strong, successful, independent Arab woman who doesn't seem Arab and could be anyone, because that means that the people they're killing could actually be people like them. These kinds of attitudes are very patronizing -- they're about boxing people in. My film tries to smash those boxes. Asya is in so many you don't know how to conceive her. That's why it was so hard to fund, because there wasn't a box I could fit it in.

DN: To me the film seemed to be one big joke, punctuated by moments of seriousness.

ZD: It's me talking about how absurd reality is, and it's absurd for most people like me living outside of it in the West. What was really nice for me was when the Pakistani poet and write Fatima Bhutto wrote a wonderful review in the Huffington Post the following day. She's someone who's grown up with conflict in Pakistan and Afghanistan, so it's important for me that someone who's lived a more extreme version of what I've gone through can relate to it and use it as an example of resistance.

DN: The reviews for your film were mostly positive, but there were some who seemed almost offended by its subject matter.

ZD: Bad reviews are bound to happen. Some people just won't get your film, but when a review comes and says that there's no self-deprecation or humour in it, it's just that they didn't want to get what I was doing. I think the film messed people up. Many people don't like the idea of easy assimilation by people from a Middle Eastern background. It makes them feel uncomfortable when they can't see the 'otherness' in people. This film shows the integrated other. It's much harder to do an honest film about these situations and all these feelings that you have than to do a film about a poor immigrant that's abused and has a kebab van. That's much more palatable to Western audiences, as some feel much more comfortable looking at us from above.

Don't get me wrong, films should be made about that, because it's a serious valid struggle, but there are also other dimensions. That's not my reality or experience, so I didn't want to make a film about that. I'm more interested in the absurdity of life. War could be going on and I'm sitting in a cafe drinking a latte on the phone with my friend and hearing bombs go off in the background. That is the reality that I'm interested in.

DN: What's your next project?

ZD: I have a lot of projects on the boil, and I'm not sure which one will go first, but I'm hoping it will be a film called Antelope Nights, which will be set in Arkansas and will very much be my tone.

Looking for an intern

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:52:00 +0000

StilinBerlin is currently looking for an intern, who'd like to support us in our office in Berlin Mitte.

We're looking for someone...
...who's able to commit to at least three days a week for a minimum of 3 months.
...with impeccable written and verbal communication skills in English and (at least) basic German.
...who's highly self-motivated, enthusiastic and familiar with the blog's aesthetic.
...who's not afraid of errand-running and administration, because that will be the main part, although there is the possibility to create own content depending on your skills and interests.
...with experience in HTML and blog publishing.

A background and interest in photography and / or videography is not required, but is highly valued (Please attach samples of your work: an url or max. of 2 jpgs, not bigger than 100kb).

All candidates must be based in Berlin. The internship is paid. Please send your applications (short cover letter + resumé) to info@stilinberlin.de with "internship" in the subject-line.

Mariannenstraße: Dasha

noreply@blogger.com (dario) — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:26:00 +0000

Dasha is a creative director from Moscow and is wearing a top from Comme des Garçons and vintage Christian Dior sunglasses.

The "How to Shop Berlin Designers in Berlin" - Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Anntian at Konk

As you might have noticed, we're eager followers of the work of Berlin-based designers, and we want them to be successful - so the idea to assemble a guide on how to shop Berlin-based designers in the city is not too far off our way. Let's be honest: one of the most important things for a fashion brand is to sell their designs -- so go out and shop NOW:

P.S. / Disclaimer: Here's a map for all the spots. And of course, this list can only be far from exhaustive, we chose the shops and brands according to our interests and liking. It's sorted by shops, starting with multi-label shops. All of these stores stock more than the Berlin based labels we mention here.

KONK

Konk is by far the store with the biggest offer of Berlin based designers, and we highly recommend it if you're interested in Berlin's fashion design scene. Here's a list of the available labels: Anntian, Boessert/Schorn, Carocora, Franzius, Isabell de Hillerin, Tiedeken, Penelope‘s Sphere, Rob-ert, Reality Studio and Thone Negrón.
Kleine Hamburger Straße 15, 10117 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Fri 12-20h, Sat 12-19h

F95

Though located rather off the ordinary tracks at Gleisdreieck, F95 is definitely worth the travels for stocking the following labels: Issever Bahri, Karlotta Wilde, Kaviar Gauche, Liebig, Lala Berlin, Mongrels in Common and Malaika Raiss.
Luckenwalder Straße 4-6, 10963 Berlin Kreuzberg, Mon-Fri 11-20h, Sat 11-18h

Interior of Baerck, (c) Vera Hofmann

BAERCK

In a nice interior design, you can shop Reality Studio as well as Malaika Raiss in the middle of Berlin Mitte's shopping district around Münzstraße.
Mulackstraße 12, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Sat 12-20h

WALD

A small store conveniently located on Alte Schönhauser Straße offering Karlotta Wilde and Malaika Raiss.
Alte Schönhauser Strasse 32c, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Sat 12-20h

APARTMENT

Don't be deterred from the huge all-white and empty space upstairs, but straightly head to the small spiral staircase to descend to the basement, where you‘ll find the only possibility in Berlin to shop the much coveted labels Augustin Teboul and Vladimir Karaleev.
Memhardstraße 8, 10178 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Fri 11-19h, Sat 12-19h

DEPARTMENTSTORE Quartier 206

The beautifully designed Quartier206 houses the Departmentstore, that you‘ll find by entering their beauty department and then up the stairs to a full floor filled with international labels as well as a selection of Michael Sontag and Hien Le.
Friedrichstraße 71, 10117 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Fri 11-20h, Sat 10-18h

TEMPORARY SHOWROOM

Temporary Showroom is much more permanent than you might think hearing the name, despite the renovations that have been going on for what feels like years. Besides stocking Scandinavians, you‘ll also find Boessert/Schorn and Reality Studio here.
Kastanienallee 36, 10435 Berlin Prenzlauer Berg, Mon-Sat 12-20h

VOO

We told you about Voo so many times but of course it has to be in this list, since they‘re stocking selections of Issever Bahri and Hien Le.
Oranienstraße 14, 10999 Berlin Kreuzberg, Mon-Sat 11-20h

ULF HAINES

Ulf Haines concept store is the only possibility to shop Perret Schaad in Berlin, and therefore not to be missed!
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 9, 10178 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Sat 12-20h

Flagship stores from A to Z -

A.D.DEERTZ

A very fine line of menswear, find out more about it in our article.
Torstraße 106, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Sat 12-19h

AKKESOIR

The world of jewelry designer Akke Aimaq is all about sophisticated statement-pieces with bold decor.
Linienstraße 215, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Tue-Sat 12-19h

C.NEEON

We have a soft-spot for this Bauhaus inspired brand. Their beautiful geometric patterns come in bright colour mixes and unique cuts - their store also sells limited editions as well as fabrics and interior accessories.
Kastanienallee 55, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Tue-Fri 12-20h, Sat 13-20h

DSTM

Don't Shoot The Messengers' sexy and sophisticated designs can be found in their own boutique just off Mulackstraße.
Rückerstraße 10, 10119 Berlin, Mon-Sat 13-20h

ESTHER PERBANDT

A line for men and women, austere, androgynous and often black, with distinct cuts and fancy details.
Almstadtstraße 3, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Fri 10-19h, Sat 12-18h

KAVIAR GAUCHE

Best known for their bridal wear and characteristic bags, the store offers the full collection of the notorious label - don't miss their vintage store, selling show-pieces and designs from previous seasons.
Linienstraße 44, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Sat 12-19h
Kaviar Gauche vintage, Brunnenstraße 6, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Sat 12-19h

LALA BERLIN

One of the most prestigious brands in Mitte, Lala Berlin's signature piece is still the huge scarf with catchy prints, of which you will find a big selection in their own store, as well as their current collection.
Mulackstraße 7, 10119 Berlin, Mon-Fri 11:30-19:30h, Sat 12-18h

MONGRELS IN COMMON

Ladylike clothing inspired by menswear, in classical shapes yet modern patterns and beautiful materials.
Tiekstraße 29, 10115 Berlin, by appointment

MYKITA

A Berlin eyewear manufacturer that was founded in 2003 and since has risen to stardom with their unique hand-made designs.
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 6, 10178 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Fri 11-20h, Sat 12-18h

POTIPOTI

Loud prints and easy cuts, playful patterns and witty details by designer duo Silvia Salvador and Nando Cornejo.
Rosenthaler Straße 66, 10119 Berlin, Mon-Sat 12-19h

SABRINA DEHOFF

A favorite when it comes to jewelry from Berlin, Sabrina Dehoff's store is a must-see, if you‘d ask us. Sabrina Dehoff is also available at Departmentstore Q206, Andreas Murkudis and Schwarzhogerzeil.
Torstraße 175, 10115 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Fri 12-19h

TRIPPEN

Yes, it's ecological and anatomically correct, two characteristics that are not known for the fashionability. Still we say, don't miss taking a look at the Trippen collection.
Hackesche Höfe, yard 4 & 6, Rosenthaler Straße 40/41, 10178 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Fri 11-20h, Sat 10-20h
Alte Schönhauser Straße 45, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Mon-Sat 12-19h
Knaackstraße 26, 10405 Berlin Prenzlauer Berg, Mon-Fri 12-19h, Sat 11-18h

Interview: Jana Johanna Häckel

noreply@blogger.com (dario) — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:22:00 +0000

Jana Johanna Häckel is a Berlin-based curator who's worked for the Verein der Freunde der National Galerie as well as the Boros Collection, and will soon begin a ph.D position in Brussels. Her most recent exhibition "Languages of Revolution" is now on at Kleine Humboldt Galerie in Mitte. The exhibition features artists from nine different countries, with each artist showing works related to the global protest movement which was sparked by last year's Arab Spring. I sat down with her to talk about the artists' works and their relation to Berlin's art scene.

DN: How did the topic of the exhibition develop?

JH: The starting point was a reflection on the events of the Arab Spring and the revolutionary movements that followed, from London Tottenham to Madrid and Greece, for example. Very emotional discussions soon came from philosophers like Slavoj Žižek, but also artists like Wolfgang Tillmans expressed their thoughts. In the beginning of 2012, the Frankfurter Kunstverein exhibited artworks dealing with the topic of demonstrations, and this weekend we saw the opening of the Berlin Biennale, curated by Artur Żmijewski in cooperation with the Russian artist group Voina, whose approach is notedly political and revolutionary.

My personal approach to the topic began with Stéphane Hessel's "Indignez-vous," a kind of pamphlet published in 2010 which was quickly adopted by a lot of groups aspiring to create a revolutionary movement. What's so interesting about this is that these groups emerged all over the world, so despite them having a very different cultural and historical background, they all found something useful in the same pamphlet by this French author. I started to think about the role and the value of language, how it's used in the context of revolutionary motivation, which in the end led me to the issue of languages of revolution.

DN: Have you seen a politicization of art since the Arab Spring?

JH: To me the shiny 90s and early 2000 design art aesthetic is becoming less and less interesting and I personally would favor a development towards political and explicitly critical art. I've lived in Berlin for the last ten years and of course the situation for the production of art has been changing. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find cheap living and working spaces for example. And I would like to see a reflection of those current processes and changes in the work young artists create.

DN: Would you say Berlin's art world is unpolitical?

JH: The art world here is on many levels connected to the hedonistic party life Berlin is so popular for. So of course the art scene is a lot about partying, whereas for example in Düsseldorf, where I've just spent some time as a curatorial assistance at K21, a vernissage is a very serious and wealthy event. As much as I enjoy Berlin, the conditions for a hedonistic lifestyle are changing due to the rise of cost-of-living and this will in the end effect the way art is produced.

DN: I haven't seen too much a shift away from party culture in Berlin though. To me, it seems like it's increasing even.

JH: Besides economic reasons, I also see some kind of slowly emerging fatigue with hedonism, at least in myself. I think Berlin would benefit from becoming more adult, from shifting away from solely partying and consuming.

DN: The exhibition features artists from nine different countries. What was your criteria for selecting the artists who would participate?

JH: For me it was very important to create a group show with works by artists of different generations and different cultural identities and not just to rely on my network of friends of friends, as is too often done in the art-world. Some of the works I exhibited were recommended to me through discussions I had with other artists, so the selection was culled from a mix of my professional experiences as well as from collaborative talks with other artists working with these ideas. Furthermore I wanted to mix well known artists, such as Dan Perjovschi or Santiago Sierra, as well as lesser known artists like Clemens Wilhelm or Qi Zi from China.

DN: What were the contrasts between the way language was used in terms of revolution?

JH: In the process of planning and creating, it turned out it's not necessarily the cultural point of view but more the the treatment of an idea of language and revolution which I found the most striking. On the one hand you have artists like Clemens Wilhelm from Berlin, who focused on a very nihilistic message saying "Macht Nichts," which has a two meanings in German: 'Never mind!' as well as 'Don‘t do anything!' He used the very slick aesthetic of political advertising, such as print buttons, wall papers, and flying over Berlin with an airplane to display a message that is in itself denying consumption and even activity.

Clemens Wilhelm's "Macht Nichts" buttons

And then there's Santiago Sierra's "No Global Tour", who went on a road trip and documented it with video, traveling through different cities with a truck carrying huge letters spelling out "NO."

A documentary of Santiago Sierra's "NO Global Tour" as it arrives in Iceland

Nadia Kaabi-Linke from Tunisia, just used imprints of people in front of the palace of the Tunisian president, shortly before the change of government. She used forensic techniques and materials combined with glaziery methods, finding traces of people. In this way her work is a very direct and unfiltrated imprint of people's expressions, referring to the concept of the index in photographic theory.

DN: What about the use of technology? There's quite a variety in the use of mediums, from Qi Zi's paper sculptures to Constantin Hartenstein's use of high resolution projectors.

JH: Of course the technology or rather the medium that transports the language is important, Qi Zi and Hartenstein use a very different idea of language, for instance. Qi Zi, who comes from China, used small pieces of cut up dictionaries to form small sausages, creating a sculpture which is a metaphor for the non-language of people that live under dictatorial conditions. Constantin Hartenstein, on the other hand, used technology to collect the messages of the Occupy Wall Street Movement in New York and beam them onto a protest sign, commenting on the press' widespread discussion that the OWS movements was a diffuse one, even though it was in fact very well organized through the Internet.

One of Constantin Hartenstein's projected Occupy signs

DN: Did you see a common thread between all these movements with regard to the artists' works?

JH: I think my idea wasn't really to compare the movements, but to compare the different ways of reflection on language and political messages. The funny thing is that the diversity of movements and nationalities that are featured in the exhibition are also mirrored by the diversity in the mediums used by the artists; But to put it more politically: there is something different in the work of artists from the Arabic countries, or the ones where the dictatorships exist. They use a more emotional tone, act with a greater force, whereas the Western artists, who live in situations where the political pressure is much more subtle, tend to work more with the aesthetics of covered manipulation of existing structures like advertisement.

-- The exhibition "Languages of Revolution" is now open until May 22nd at Kleine Humboldt Galerie, Lichthof in the East Wing of Humboldt University, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin. Opened Wednesdays to Fridays from 12 to 6pm.

Niche Berlin's Guide to Gallery Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:35:00 +0000

People looking at art in Berlin in 2009.

Niche Berlin organizes tailor-made private art and architecture tours, bringing you to the most inspiring project spaces, galleries and museums in town. And not only are they in the know on the up-and-coming scene, but would never miss the 8th edition of Gallery Weekend hosted by the most notorious or notable galleries in the city and considered one of the hottest art events in Germany – or at least in Berlin. Of course you can spend your weekend squeezing in with hordes of people at the major galleries – we’ll be there, too. But there are many other fun things happening this week that ought not to be missed - take a look which exhibitions we’re most curious about...

For the playful:

Hunting down art: Berlin-based artist Renata Kaminska hosts the annual Bel Etage-project, which takes place around Rosa-Luxemburg Platz. This year’s group intervention with artists such as Kinga Kielzynska, Martin Kohout, Antje Majewski and Ignacio Uriarte is titled In The Shadow Of The Sun and will be on display at Babylon cinema and Kunstverein at L40. (The Ordnungsamt didn’t quite appreciate last year’s site-specific installations and had them “dismantled” quite quickly – we loved them though. And we’re curious to see what happens this year.)

Kunstverein at L-40 & Babylon, Linienstraße 40 & Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, 10178 Berlin, Opening: 26.4., 6 pm

Artists exhibiting their students’ results: For the project Neue Klasse artists Christian Jankowski and Gregor Schneider curate the works of their mutual students. The selected installation works, videos, sculptures and performances will be on display at Wiensowski & Harbord this weekend. We like the idea, let’s see about the art.

Wiensowski & Harbord, Lützowstrasse 32, 10785 Berlin, Opening: 25.4., 7 pm

For the nerds:

Machine aesthetics and industrial sound: Tokyo-based artist and muscian Ujino Muneteru gives new life to discarded technology by constructing odd apparatuses and sound landscapes. For his exhibition duet at PSM he samples his robot spirits with traditional elements of Noh theatre. Sounds weirdly intriguing to us.

PSM, Strassburger Straße 6-8, 10405 Berlin, Opening: 27.4.2012, 6 pm

Exploring the unchallenged possibilities of e-waste: The project ReFunct Media #4 by Benjamin Gaulon, Niklas Roy, Karl Klomp, Tom Verbruggen and Gijs Gieskes hosted by LEAP consists of multi-media installations with various digital and analogue media players and receivers, which are misused and re-contextualized in order to provoke thoughts about planned obsolescence and sustainable design strategies. However, there are plenty of gadgets to play around with!

LEAP - Lab for Electronic Arts and Performance, (Berlin Carré, first floor), Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 13, 10178 Berlin

For the socialites:

Two (more or less) must-see openings next week: Michael Sailstorfer at Berlinische Galerie and Roman Ondák at Deutsche Guggenheim, both prize-winning artists, open their respective shows: Local hero Sailstorfer presents Forst, which includes a tree installation in BG as well as his work Black Forest consisting in the life-stream of a blackened square of forest as it slowly regresses to its natural state. Roman Ondák’s project do not walk outside this area promises to draw the spectator into an imaginary journey questioning the arbitrary conventions of the art industry that – for instance – often draw a fine line between object and fetish.

Berlinische Galerie, Alte Jakobstraße 124-128, 10969 Berlin, Opening: 25.4., 6 pm

Deutsche Guggenheim, Unter den Linden 13-15, 10119 Opening: 25.4., 6 pm

For the thinkers:

Articulated: CHERT presents London based artist Lucy Coggle (1981) with her show A.A.A.A, including drawings, a video and the book An Argument Against A/R/T/I/C/U/L/A/T/I/O/N – together forming a monologue about language, its delimitations, and its possibilities for manipulation or divulgence. We’re curious, as the artists of Chert usually have quite some humour.

Chert, Skalitzerstr. 68 10997 Berlin, Opening: 27.4., 6 pm

Art of story-telling: Tanya Leighton shows New York-based artist Alejandro Cesarco (1975) with The Early Years an investigation of the ways we deal with our own story, where the pieces - ranging from unwritten books to textual communication - explore various manifestations of personal narratives. And yes, we admittedly like that conceptual touch…

Tanya Leighton, Kurfürstenstraße 156, 10785 Berlin, Opening: 27.4., 6 pm

For those who like it detailed:

Taking a breath: Johnen Galerie presents Glasgow-based artist Martin Boye (*1967). In Praise of Shadows features new works of 2011’s Turner-prize winner that refer once again to architecture and modern design, questioning the respective utopian potential. His objects and installations fuse architecture and nature into melancholic pairs. Clear, beautiful and smart: relaxing, we say!

Johnen Galerie, Marienstraße 10, 10117 Berlin, Opening: 27.4., 6 pm

Some like it weird – just like us: At KOW Berlin-based artist, writer, and curator Alice Creischer (1960) presents the multipart installation The Establishment of Matters of Fact on the regime of the factual, examining the conditions of knowledge-production and dissemination: Family trees, scientific classifications, and genetic codes of lab mice serve as subjects for Creischer’s various images, collages, objects and encoded poems, while the central piece refers to a vacuum pump, which scientist Robert Boyle used in the 1660’s to prove the existence of a vacuum – by suffocating lab mice.

KOW, Brunnenstraße 9, 10119 Berlin, Opening: 27.4., 6 pm

Go have fun!

Leuschnerdamm: Annagloria

noreply@blogger.com (dario) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:47:00 +0000

Club Monaco x StilinBerlin - One day in Berlin - Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:13:00 +0000

Club Monaco has arrived in Berlin at Galeries Lafayette. We used the opportunity to welcome the Canadian brand with a guide through our city and presented them our favorite spots for a day in Berlin - the lovely couple Laura and Stephane strolled through the city dressed in the latest Club Monaco collection, enjoying delicious food and drinks, shops and sights. We hope you enjoy our selection of locations! If you like the clothes, you might also be interested in the opening party at Galeries Lafayette on Thursday, April 19th from 6pm to 8pm. Dario will be present to take your picture for you to take home that night as well.
For now, here is our short guide to five beautiful locations to spend a day in Berlin:

As your day in Berlin should be a day of great weather (which is more likely from late April to early October), you should start it with a stroll starting at Alexanderplatz, leading you over Unter den Linden and directs you to Berlin's most famous sight, the Brandenburger Tor. On this tour you'll pass Museumsinsel, UNESCO world heritage and home to five remarkable museums. Besides hosting some of the most precious artefacts, it showcases the development of museum design over 100 years. Starting with Karl Friedrich Schinkel‘s Altes Museum from 1830, followed by the only recently rebuild Neues Museum from 1859, the Alte Nationalgalerie from 1876, the Baroque Bode Museum from 1904 and finally the Pergamon Museum from 1930, this site is loaded with historical spirit and overall a really nice place to take a stroll early in the morning or late at night, when the pack of tourists have left. If you have enough time, visit at least one of them (we recommend Alte Nationalgalerie with Adolf Menzel's "Balkonzimmer" and Gerhard Richter's "18. Oktober 1977" still on show till May 13th, 2012).

After starting the day early with a stroll, you might feel hungry for a brunch and surely The Kitchen Café (Choriner Straße 84, Prenzlauer Berg) offers the best whole-grain bread accompanied by tasty dips, jams, baked granola with fresh fruit, juicy quiches and savory sandwiches. Seated in Philipp Stark and Konstantin Grcic chairs, this break will give you enough energy to check out surrounding clothing shops like Soto, A.D.Deertz, Happy Shop, pick up some old-school Polaroids at Sofortbild-Shop or visit galleries like Neugerriemschneider or Kunst-Werke.

Devoted readers of this blog might already have noticed our love for Voo (Oranienstraße 24, Kreuzberg) and there's no need to repeat our praise (since you can read it here). After visiting Voo, you might also like to check the fabulous magazine/book store Motto, recomendable as well are the chert gallery and Aufbau-Haus, which hosts the exuberant material store modulor. Also the center for architecture, DAZ and the bustling Turkish market at Maybachufer are in this area.

After a long day with many new impressions, be sure to end your day in a cosy and dainty restaurant, e.g. in Ruben & Carla (Linienstraße 136, Mitte). After manifesting his fame with his 24hr sandwich place Luigi Zuckermann in Rosenthaler Straße, Ehud Cohen went on to open this restaurant focusing on pastrami and tagliata, a sliced beef steak. You can also enjoy burgers and vegetarian options, with the brisk owner twirling through the small place. But the main point here is to eat high quality meats like Entrecote from Australia, U.S. Prime Beef Filet or the acclaimed Argentinian Sirloin. Other delicious dinner places in the area are the avantgarde cuisine at Katz Orange, a French Bistro menu at 3 Minutes sur Mer (Torstraße 167) or some phenomenal pasta at Hartweizen.

Finishing a day in Berlin with a visit of a bar, is very du jour. With the opening of Kingsize in May 2010, the shift in favoured night-time activities from clubbing to bar-ing was manifested. Numerous equally tiny places have sprung in Mitte and Kreuzberg since then, but Kingsize is still the most coveted, being protected by a polite but rigorous doorman. The place is packed with exhilarating people, especially on the famous artist nights on Wednesdays, when beer is only 2,50 Euro. If it's too packed for you to enjoy, try Bravo Bar (Torstraße 230), Buck and Breck or Bar 3 (Weydingerstraße 20).

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Shop in Berlin: Konk

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:00:00 +0000

It's not as easy as you'd think to shop Berlin based designers in Berlin, but Konk is a safe bet for exactly this. Though Ettina Berrios-Negrón did not plan this in the first place, the development turned out to be rewarding. Stocking the biggest selection of Anntian, Tiedeken, Boessert/Schorn, Reality Studio and many more, Ettina is also on the look-out for young talents like carocora or Karlotta Wilde and offers a range of jewelry from David Aubrey, Alex Monroe, Catherine Weitzman and Naoko Ogawa.
The beautiful interior was done by Ettina and her husband, Luis Berrios-Negrón, with furniture designed by Rainer Spehl and a lovely dressing room.

Konk - Kleine Hamburger Straße 15, 10117 Berlin-Mitte
Subway: Oranienburger Straße
Opening Hours: Mon - Fri, 12h-20h; Sat 12h-19h

Shop in Berlin: Sofortbild Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Though various apps have been developed to be a consolation for the loss of Polaroid in 2008, a lot of us still miss the real feeling of instantly taking and processing a picture.
And there is help: The Sofortbild (instant picture) shop offers a selection of vintage Polaroid cameras, the instant photography devices by Fuji and the complete range of analogue films by The Impossible Project. The Viennese company fabricates a completely new version of the former Polaroid films (who were using a lot of chemicals, that are now illegal) and is thus striving for a conservation of this analogue photography.
The tiny store also elects the Polaroid of the month, does exhibitions on artists using the instant method, rents out cameras and offers various books, magazines and so on.. in short, is a mekka for everyone interested in this technique.

Sofortbild Shop - Brunnenstraße 195, 10119 Berlin Mitte
Subway: Rosenthaler Platz
Opening hours: Mon - Fri, 12h-20h; Sat 12h-18h

Shop in Berlin: Garments

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:00:00 +0000

After having to search for their first space in Prenzlauer Berg for two years before finally opening it in 2009, the Mitte store of Garments was found in a mere week after the decision was made to open a second branch. Since October 2010 this locations offers a range of deliberately selected pieces of vintage clothing, jewelry and accessories, that exceeds its Prenzlauer Berg counterpart in terms of exuberance. Drawing their stock from various sources with an eye for special pieces and with a lovingly treatment of the presented pieces, Garments is aiming for a conscious re-use of clothing, instead of giving in to fast-fashion.

Garments - Linienstraße 204, 10119 Berlin Mitte
Subway: Rosenthaler Platz
Opening Hours: Mon - Sat, 12h-19h

Food in Berlin: Smart Deli

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0000

The Smart Deli opened its doors in February 2002 in Friedrichshain and moved to Mitte last year to a much bigger store. Obviously most Japanese people live either in Charlottenburg or even Wannsee, and Smart Deli wanted to offer them a better location to shop Japanese groceries.
Smart Deli offers a range of every day dishes and of course Sushi is on the menu, but also soup (the udon soup pictured above is just delicious), bento boxes and a variety of main dishes on a weekly changing menu. Japanese food is much about the love for a product, so preparations are usually simple and focus on the high quality of the ingredients. Thus Smart Deli had their water system renovated to get a softer water, use only organic vegetables and have a lot of vegan options. Also they strive for serving meals, that can be eaten up completely to avoid any kind of unnecessary waste. Smart Deli's team is caring a lot about creating a space with good energy, reviving the people who visit and increasing the cosiness of a rather dull part of Chausseestraße.

Smart Deli - Chausseestraße 5, 10115 Berlin Mitte
Subway: Oranienburger Tor
Opening Hours: Mon - Sat: 10h-22h

Shop in Berlin: Andreas Murkudis

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:19:00 +0000

Andreas Murkudis' concept store, that was founded in 2003, might just be the most well known Berlin store world-wide and has helped establish the city's international importance and appeal. After the building of Murkudis' former location in Mitte's Münzstraße, was sold, the team was lucky to find this enormous and bright space in the former Tagesspiegel newspaper building. This area of northern Schöneberg, bordering on Potsdamer Platz, has experienced a real push in popularity, when many galeries formerly located around Heidestraße, moved here. Still it's quite a hike to get here from your usual Kiez (except you'd be an early adopter), but it surely pays off for the beauty and excellent choice you'll find. The all white and bright space opened after six months of heavy renovation last July and is now located on 1000sqm in the former printing machine and packaging halls with an interior design by Gonzales Haase.
The concept store is very well known for its outstanding choice of products, that is still and exclusively done by Andreas Murkudis himself, who seems to just always have the right taste and overall the patience to support small manufacturers over more than one season. Ranging from high fashion collections by Céline and Dries van Noten, to the delicate porcelain designs by Nymphenburg and the sweet chocolate products of Hamann, the choice and presentation will surely make you find many new favorites. I may recommend you to take a look at the leather goods of Isaac Reina, former accessory designer of Maison Martin Margiela, the organic cosmetics of Kjaer Weis, and, of course the beautiful products by Aesop.
Though sadly the cooperation of Dries van Noten and Murkudis is already over, where customers were able to choose the pattern of a dress on their own, the Murkudis team is keen on keeping the event schedule lively with an ongoing exhibition of Clemens Tissi's furniture, a cooperation with Artek for the upcoming gallery weekend and the presentation of Kostas Murkudis' collaboration with Zimmerli for next fashion week.

Andreas Murkudis - Potsdamer Straße 81e, 10785 Berlin Schöneberg
Subway: Kurfürstenstraße
Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 10h-20h

Shop in Berlin: Soto

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:24:00 +0000

Soto is the store for the contemporary Berlin Mitte man, opened in April 2010 by three very contemporary Berlin Mitte men: David Fischer (above in the picture with his colleague Lia), Philip Gaedicke and Omer Ben-Michael, all with a background in fashion and sensing a certain gap in the selection of local menswear stores. They were longing for a store where they could assemble everything they personally liked and thus Soto caters to a volatile shopper, who wears a Thom Browne Oxford shirt one day and a Norse Projects 5 Panel Cap the next. In an interior self designed with many objects collected from furniture halls near Amsterdam, Soto is presenting brands from Adam Kimmel to Velour, from low-priced simple shirts (said to be the best) by A.O.CMS to luxurious Patrick Ervell jackets.

The decision to be located at Torstraße was quickly made, back then no one (except Rafael Horzon) was interested in this part of Mitte, today it's the one with the most promising development (see our entries on A.D.Deertz and Sabrina Dehoff). Soto is going so well, they are currently looking for a second location, since the rather small store is already filled up with the many products Fischer, Gaedicke and Ben-Michael want to offer the Berlin shoppers, adding brands like Dries van Noten and Aspesi in coming fall. By the way, Soto just means "South of Torstraße".

Soto - Torstraße 72, 10119 Berlin Mitte
Subway: Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 12h-20h

Nina Egli

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:30:00 +0000

Met my friend Nina for a coffee and müsli yesterday, she's on a short visit in Berlin from Zurich. She's wearing a top by Family Affairs and jewelry by Toujours Toi, both her own labels.

Shop in Berlin: Voo

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:25:00 +0000

Voo love is true love - that's what their totes say, and you will know this is not exaggerated after spending a visit to this lovely concept store in Kreuzberg. Voo was just voted "Superstore", the world's best new boutique, by farfetch.com and this title is rightly earned. Owned by the Müjdecis and since eight months curated by Herbert Hofmann, the November 2010 founded concept store quickly made its way to the lists of diligent shoppers worldwide. Their concept is to offer sustainable, valuable items from small manufacturers - like those handmade Stutterheim raincoats with the name of the maker inscribed in the label (see photo below) or the lip balm of the Swedish military, Hudsalva. Voo is also home to a second branch of Café CK, has a great selection of books selected by literature maven Paolo Stolpman and was furnished by Sigurd Larsen.

Voo - Oranienstraße 24, 10999 Berlin Kreuzberg
Subway: Kottbusser Tor
Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 11h-20h

Coffee in Berlin: THE BARN

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Meet (a part of) the crew of THE BARN, a super-small coffee store on a side-street of Auguststraße. Though it's been only open for little more than one and a half year, it already found its way into the hearts of coffee-lovers from all over the city. Along with luscious sandwiches, quiches, Cannelés and cakes, they offer delicious coffees, brewed by specialists in such a refined way, you might never forget your first THE BARN espresso (at least, I won't).

Their expertise in coffee and passion for high quality product is stunning, not only are they offering four different methods of brewing (AeroPress, Woodneck, V60 and Syphon), make seasonal changes to their brewbar menu and filter their water by a reverse osmosis system, but also focus on direct trading, support of local producers and (furthermore!) are working on creating a cosy hub for the busy Auguststraßen neighbourhood.

We talked to Ralf (second from right in the above picture), the owner and founder of THE BARN about speciality coffee, a diva called coffee and why crema is completely overrated:

When did you start this morning?
Today I slept a little longer, because I worked through the weekend. I trained someone yesterday until 9pm, so today I slept until 8am. Usually I start at 7am; one hour before opening we brew all the coffees with all our different brew methods. When our baristas are very busy, the production and service staff need to be able to describe the different coffee flavors, and so they taste them every morning. Ideally we wouldn't even have a menu and guide our customers by their senses, it's just that we're required by law to have one.

So there is a division between people who make the coffee, the ones who serve and the ones who work in the kitchen?
Yes, we have three types of positions, though those blend a little when we get busy, and obviously everyone needs to be able serve customers, but only a few people are allowed to brew coffee and qualify as a barista. Even though many people joining us have years of experience, it usually takes us two months until they are up to speed with our standards and in sync with the rest of our team. We all need to get the same feel for the coffee that we're using, every coffee needs to taste excellent, so we need to make sure that people who join us do exactly what we want them to do. Still, we do leave freedom for them to experiment, we're very geeky, we measure everything: temperature, the grind setting, the tds (total dissolved solids). For example, today we got snow, so the humidity will probably rise a little bit and we‘ll need to adjust the coffee grind more often than on a steady day. Good coffee is like a diva, if you don't treat her well she's not singing. And even with a good coffee you can make a bad cup.

[The first espresso is served.]

How do you feel about the layer of crema on top?
Well.. first we don't like the taste of it. We think it does not support the flavour profile of the coffee. If we could, we'd remove it and so we swirl it into the drink, because what's really delicious is the coffee itself.

The crema is just a fancy add-on you don't need?
Have you ever tried crema on it's own? It's got a pretty bad taste.

It's very bitter.
Exactly, and we don't want to have any bitterness in the drink. With this particular espresso you should taste fruity acidity and a bit of cherry and marzipan, then the drink comes down with really nice base notes on your tongue, until it disappears. We really want people to enjoy it as pure as possible. Allthough we do have sugar, we advise our customers to enjoy their coffee without it. When we started not to put any spoons on the saucers our sugar consumption halved. That's our contribution to society: people will actually live longer (laughs)! And it does taste really great without.

[He smells his espresso, then drinks it in one sip.]

You drink it in one go?
You don't have to, but I like it this way to get a complete picture in one go. When you extract an espresso you can divide the shot in different stages. For example you can break it up every seven seconds and you'll taste different things in each cup. When the shot comes together, we want to experience all of those stages. If you only take a first sip you'd probably get some fruity acidity, but if you continue with the whole drink it will go to the back of your tongue and settle really nicely like velvet.

[I am drinking the espresso, slowly though.]

This is the best espresso I ever had. I am not an eager follower of third wave, I like good coffee, but obviously I had no idea what coffee can taste like.
Some people like it burnt, because that's what they remember from their younger years; it is their sensual memory. We are working with very high-quality beans that have been roasted to perfection, so we want to get as much out of the bean and the roast as possible. When I started The Barn, I wanted to use a local coffee roaster, but even though there are some good people in Berlin, we couldn't get anything that we liked, anything that really follows the philosophy of third-wave or specialty coffee. Our roaster is located in London, Square Mile Coffee Roasters, and we're honoured they supply us with beans. They roast on Mondays, dispatch it on Tuesdays, so we have it on Thursdays. Transportation is done through the Eurotunnel so that the coffee is not exposed to a lot of temperature or air pressure change. The farther you move away from the roast date, the less flavor you'll get. The beans start degassing and losing strength. We only use filter coffee up to two or two and a half weeks after roasting. For the espresso we have to wait six to eight days after roasting before we can use it. It has a different roast profile with a little bit more temperature at the beginning and so it degasses more strongly. When the espresso machine puts full pressure on it, the coffee would be a bit too jumpy in the first few days. We use a Synesso Hydra Coffee machine that was handmade for us in Seattle; it allows us to work with pressure profiling – we can phase in and out of shots manually. Pretty amazing. Also, we installed reversed osmosis water filtration to bring our water to perfect mineral content and remove bad particles from the Berlin water.

Do you remember your first cup of coffee?
That's tricky, because I drank so many coffees in my life. I probably remember what my father drank, Eduscho Kaffee from a Melitta Filterkaffee-machine.

The prototypical German coffee many of us experienced.
He was a postman, getting up at five in the morning, turning the machine on with 10 cups in it, and probably drinking most of them. Really quick to wake up and go to work. With a lot of milk and sugar, because the filter coffee in Germany was of low quality and you probably had to mix it with milk and sugar to drink it.

Filter coffee is not generally a bad idea?
It's an amazing product, many countries, like Australia, New Zealand or the Nordic Countries, know that. They have a great heritage of coffee, when someone from these countries applies for a job with us, they'll probably have a good idea of what coffee should taste like. Whereas Germans only know either bad Filterkaffee or Italian roasted espresso coffee. In Italy, the price protection makes people use a lot of Robusta coffee, which is much cheaper and grows on lower ground. It gives a steady crema that some people like and it contains more caffeine. Arabica grows on high altitudes, qualitywise there is no limit. Like in wine, we can get extremely valuable beans that offer a great deal of complexity in the cup. Dont get me wrong – I do like Italians for their milk steaming and so on, however, their coffee needs sugar to cover up the bitterness. In the end you‘ll get a caffeine and a sugar shock.

But you started with Melitta Filterkaffee?
Yes, with my father. You know, the Germans are tricky, they want to buy food for a very low price. In supermarkets they pay around 18% less for food compared to for example France or Belgium. The same happens in coffee. Strangely though, Nespresso is very successful, even though one kilo of Nespresso coffee costs around 140 EUR; it's only divided into little capsules with 2 grams of coffee in each one.

But isn't that slowly changing? Of course Mitte is an island, but people like you and your coffee bar are striving to change that bargain attitude, right?
Yes, and we hope when people have had their coffee here, they‘ll go back to their local coffee bar and ask for better coffee, or for fresh milk instead of UHT milk. Certainly fresh is a little more expensive, but obviously with a good product you get more people in your shop. But back to the Filterkaffee - there's something nostalgic about it. Of course, it's different than what we do here. Your average German filter coffee is industrial coffee, harvested with huge machines, people are not paid enough, etc. We work with roasters who trade directly with micro-farmers. They sometimes pay two to three times more than fair-trade pricing. I am not a big fan of fair trade, because it doesn't create a market or improve the quality at the source.

Because it protects the farmers from the market?
It's good for the country, but we'd rather donate money to them for Christmas. In our case, the farmer gets a superhigh price, the roaster works with the farmer to improve the working conditions on the farm so we can get a better product. Its a win-win situation for everybody involved and it raises the self-esteem of the producer.

Shawn pouring milk into a coffee drink.

What did you do before you opened THE BARN?
I was in banking, for 19 years actually. I started at age 15 in Moers near Düsseldorf, where I grew up. It was the mid-eighties and everyone wanted to work for a bank or an insurance agency. I started because I was interested in traveling. And so I lived in Japan, Singapore, and in London for 10 years until I got fired in the crisis of 2003. In London, I lived next to Borough Market, which is an amazing slow-food market, and every morning I went to the Monmouth coffee shop, which were pioneers in direct coffee trade on a small scale. When I moved to London in 1998 they had already been established for many years.

Were they starting the third wave?
Not really. Third wave is a new term that came up over the past decade. But Monmouth were early birds in directly trading with small farms and in improving working conditions which led to a better product for them.

It was an inspiration?
Yes. They have only two tiny shops and people are waiting in long queues for their coffees. Today my taste has changed a bit. I like high-grade lightroasted coffee and Monmouth go a touch darker. Every period has its fashion, its trends and the same happens in how we enjoy coffee. That's why we need to keep our mind open and constantly adapt and change. We can't isolate ourselves, there may be a new pouring technique or a new type of coffee.

A new pouring technique!?
Well, we are looking for perfect extraction both in espresso and in filter techniques. For example, on our Hario V60 drip, we used to pour the filter coffee in concentric circles and now we aim to stay centered to always have an even and balanced extraction.
We strongly network with people we admire and so we are staying in touch with Monmouth as well. We are getting our sugar from them. They source it directly from a farm in Costa Rica. It's hand-tumbled sugar that keeps the minerals and vitamins, and it passes into your blood more slowly. It tastes like caramel with a bit of Indian spice. We wanted to have something interesting but not overwhelming. Still, we want people to taste our coffee without sugar first. Since our milk is fresh and not burnt it also naturally tastes sweeter. When we steam it we won't go over 60 degrees like some coffee shops do. The coffee should be drinkable immediately. My favorite temperature is 54-55 degrees for a flat white or a cappuccino. For lattes we go towards 60. If you burn the milk during steaming the molecules break down, it dies and then you‘ll probably need sugar.

So how did you get to opening THE BARN?
A friend of mine asked me to bake for him and his Splendid Delikatessen in Dorotheenstraße, and so I started baking. After a while I wanted to have my own shop. I thought there was no place in Berlin to have a good coffee and good food at the same time really, it was always ‘either/or’. And if you find a good coffee shop they usually get stuff delivered from somewhere else because they can‘t really manage to keep the quality of both parts up. That‘s how I started to plan, I knew how to make cakes and quiches.

How did you get into baking?
I come from a large family that never had a lot of money but we did have a big garden. So my mother would cook and bake all the time. We had a lot of relatives and for every family party we baked lots of cakes. We actually follow the recipes of my mother here and we‘re not changing them. When I started planning The Barn I didn‘t know much about coffee, just about food. I started doing research, went to London and other coffee cities, checked out what equipment I‘d need, then put out an ad on an international blog and was really lucky people applied. That was how I met Shawn in May 2010. He‘s been in coffee for more than ten years, starting when he was very young in Vancouver, where the coffee industry kicked off much earlier. He trained about 300 baristas, worked in labs roasting coffee and I felt like that was what I needed. With meeting Shawn and specialty coffee a door opened for me and I felt I had to walk through it. The scene is full of amazing people looking for the best new beans.

It sounds like a community.
Yes, and it‘s all about sharing, we do a lot of networking. In Berlin we have several friends with their own shops: Bonanza Coffee Heroes, No Fire No Glory, CK Café, Double-Eye and Chapter One, which just opened near the Marheinekehalle and every Monday we have a tasting. What we share is the passion for our product and the continuous aim for improvement.

And what you also all have in common - all the shops are tiny!
I wanted to have something small. At a party you‘ll find me in the kitchen, where it's cosy and cluttered. The atmosphere here is supposed to be a little like that. We can fit 40 people in here and people are actually making friends because they have to share a table and they start chatting. It's very international and so it's a meeting point. We try to make a real connection to our customers, we have many people who come back often and we want this place to be a harbor for them to come together.

Shop in Berlin: R.S.V.P.

noreply@blogger.com (Mary) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:17:00 +0000

Meet Meike Wander, the owner of the prettiest stationery shop in Berlin. R.S.V.P. was opened back in 2001 by Elisabeth von Treskow, an illustrator who consigned the small store (16sqm) to Meike Wander in 2004. The studied cultural scientist imagined having a small stationary store offering specialities since her childhood, when she was already looking for small paper gems for school on her family vacations in Greece. Although letter paper seems to be less and less needed, greeting cards, notebooks and calendars are still highly coveted. R.S.V.P. offers products hand-made by small manufacturers, like cards printed with a letterpress or by steel engraving, with a special focus on producers who are conserving old techniques. Meike finds those treasures still by rummaging in small stationery stores around Berlin or abroad. Furthermore they stock a beautiful selection of writing utensils from Caran d'Ache to Koh-I-Noor. Everything is neatly presented in the imposing interior by Stefan Sell, but if you can't stop by yourself, you can also order online.

R.S.V.P. - Mulackstraße 14, 10119 Berlin Mitte
Subway: Rosenthaler Platz
Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 12h-19h

A second store / showroom is located at Kopenhagener Straße 42, that is opened irregularly, but offers a broader sortiment with sandals and bags.