Berlin on a Platter

Fürst & Iven Café

My very favorite café at the moment is Fürst & Iven, tucked away under the Savignyplatz S-Bahn stop. It's attached to the lovely Autorenbuchhandlung, but merits a stop whether you're looking for books or not.

Despite its location in the little alley under the train tracks, the café manages to be both light-filled and airy. The tables are perfectly spaced, just far enough away for privacy without feeling totally lost. The music is never too loud, the service is always friendly. It's just a very peaceful place to be.

I like to order boiled eggs at Fürst & Iven because they always manage to arrive at the table perfectly cooked, if you like a set white with a fiery orange molten yolk. But the case of cakes and pastries should not be overlooked either, because they're very, very good.

The other day, I saw Gugelhupf on display and because I'm incapable of passing up something as old-fashioned and traditional as that, I had to have a slice. It was tight-crumbed and fragrant with butter. I didn't think I could finish the whole piece, but then, with my cup of tea, I did.

All the details at Fürst & Iven are just right. Their coffee comes from local roaster Andraschko and they use only organic milk and eggs. They make their own lemonades and ice teas. And their breakfast menu is just adorable, especially for those of us with literary inclinations.

Fürst & Iven
Else-Ury-Bogen 599-601
10623 Berlin
Tel: (030) 313-0151

Brot & Butter's Quarkstulle

The fact that this slice of bread, moist and sour and sporting the thickest, crispiest crust, spread with butter and a half-centimeter of Joghurtquark flavored with chives and seasoned with salt, costs 4 euros and 50 cents (that's $6.40, to put it in perspective) is a little insane. In fact, if I let myself think about it, it's more than insane.

My solution? Not to think about it. And to go to Brot & Butter only rarely, when I'm feeling like I can spend that much money on breakfast (or a very light lunch). But it's too bad the service at Brot & Butter can be brusque and snappish, too. If I'm paying that much for a piece of bread with Quark, I'd like a polite waiter or at least a prompt one. But such is life in Berlin.

On the flip side, the Stulle is delicious. The bread was still warm and the moist crumb combined with the creamy, salty, savory topping was an absolute pleasure. I remember eating one of these last summer, when it was hot and gorgeous for weeks on end, sitting outside at one of the tables in front of Brot & Butter. I'd gone in to order something to drink and the very nice barista offered, faced with my indecision between hot tea or a glass of juice, to purée fresh strawberries into some buttermilk for me. It was such a delicious drink. He was so nice. I loved that morning.

The other day, when I ordered this Stulle, I asked the unsmiling waitress if they might be able to do that again. I probably should have known better when she turned away wordlessly and stalked back into the store. When she returned to my table, she plunked an unopened container of buttermilk, like you'd buy at the grocery store, in front of me with a glass. Ah, yes.

(How do people like this stay employed?)

 

Brot & Butter
Hardenbergstraße 4-5
10623 Berlin
(030) 263 00 346

Meierei

The Kaspressknödel (cheese dumpling) floating in that plate was pretty heavenly, all gooey and chunky and wonderful, but the broth is what really got me. I have yet to master a good beef broth and the folks cooking at Meierei gave me serious broth envy. There are clearly real cooks running the kitchen (a rarity in this city) and it's a pleasure to eat what they're making.

A small sliver of a place on Kollwitzstraße in Prenzlauer Berg, Meierei serves up Alpine specialties for lunch: hearty goulashes with fork-tender, high-quality meat, delicate broths with various "Einlagen" of dumplings or strips of omelets, chewy, crusty pretzels and salads. It also functions as a small-scale deli-bakery, selling big rounds of bread, imported hot chocolate mixes, great bags of traditional Swiss spice cookies, Austrian wine and more.

I loved sitting in the window on a bar stool, slurping up my savory broth and watching the world walk by. We've only got a few weeks left of the kind of weather suited to this food, so I plan on making the most of them.

Meierei
Kollwitzstraße 42
10405 Berlin
(030) 921 295 73

Oliv Café

I find myself looking for excuses to get to Münzstrasse, just so I have a reason to stop in at Oliv Café, which has swiftly become one of my favorite cafés in Berlin. The most favorite? It's possible. Sleek and simple, with an eye towards design, and with people in the kitchen who are very good at what they do, it's such a lovely place.

I like stopping in for a cup of Kusmi tea and an afternoon snack, like crustless German cheesecake baked in a Bundt pan or a crusty fruit crumble, individually baked in a tall, thin Weck jar. But it's also a great place for lunch, either in the form of a simple sandwich (a lovely, crusty roll, say, topped with thin slices of good cured meat, a wafer of radish and a small tangle of shredded beet) or a wedge of quiche, with zucchini, for example, that's rather flat and not too rich and sporting a thin, tender crust that I wish I could recreate at home.

(I didn't think the soup, over there on the right, was much to write home about. It tasted store-bought or canned or something in between.) I like that the tiny salad that comes on the side of the quiche is dressed with a good vinaigrette and toasted sunflower seeds.

The other week, as we were paying the bill, we decided - on a whim - to get something sweet for dessert. By the cash register was a glass cookie jar filled with cookie orbs, coated in powdered sugar. I thought they were going to be like polverones, but they turned out to be almond cookies, moist and fragrant, and in the middle - surprise! - was a candied cherry. I always thought cherries and almonds together were sort of a cliché. Silly me. The cookie was just big enough for two bites and a very satisfying end to the meal.

Oliv Café
Münzstrasse 8
10178 Berlin
(030) 892 065 40