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I leave Beba behind me and follow a fenced strip of the Berlin Wall, past the site of the former Gestapo headquarters – today a memorial and museum. After circling a large group of tourists, I finally come to Oranienplatz, a wide, shabby square that is home to Ora, a restaurant and wine bar in a Victorian building that once housed a pharmacy. The original cornices, dark green leather benches and wooden cabinets with wine glasses and antique magic potion bottles give the interior an elegant atmosphere. Irish-born chef Alan Micks, who runs the kitchen both here and in the restaurant at the Michelberger Hotel a few miles east, tells me that at Ora, “local products are sourced when it feels right. Quality comes first and local things are not always the best. ”
Read more: Calla Henkel on Berlin’s constantly evolving Späti scene
I scan the menu, a neatly printed single A4 sheet of seasonal dishes and snacks before lunch. As a starter there is pikeperch crudo from the Baltic Sea, served in narrow, translucent strips with charred and pickled cucumbers and angular shiso leaves from Michelberger’s own farm. “We try to keep our vegetarian food out of the season, and our goal is to have a farm ingredient on every plate,†says Alan. My main course is roasted, grilled pumpkin slices, accompanied by puy lentils, whose combined earthy, nutty sweetness is balanced by salty pecorino, a pumpkin seed pesto and a handful of knobbed, pickled chanterelles. Life in Kreuzberg unfolds in front of the window: protests are taking place on the opposite side of Oranienplatz. Behind it, the huge stainless steel ball of the Berlin TV tower glistens silver in the sunshine, its red and white antennas pierce through wisps of clouds passing by.
On my last morning in the German capital, I go to breakfast with cookbook author and activist Sophia Hoffmann in the plant-filled, tiled Isla Coffee Berlin in Neukölln, whose shelves are lined with bottles of natural wine and cups made from recycled coffee. A line of Sunday morning coffee seekers is already snaking out the door.
Over bowls of homemade granola with blackberries, fried sage leaves, and yogurt, we talk about how the city’s approach to food waste and products has changed in recent years. Does Sophia think this is all part of a committed movement or a fleeting trend? “The conversation has changed since I published my first book in 2014,†she says. “That way of thinking is more mainstream.” Together with her business partner Nina Peterson, Sophia is planning to open her own bio-certified, low-waste and socially sustainable vegan restaurant and no longer has to prove herself or her concept. “People already understand that they should be consuming less animal products,†she says. And when it comes to the rest of the plant-based, low-waste Berlin experiences, she could well be a winner.
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