Preview 2012 | Gastronomers and their Future Plans

When gastronomers make new plans, it's hard to figure out in advance just what they've got in store. Roland Mary especially likes to keep his lips sealed shut, but every now and then,  something might trickle through his wall of silence. Mary runs the infamous Borchardt restaurant in Mitte, a magnet for national and international celebrities (he also owns Café am neuen See in Tiergarten and Pan Asia in Mitte). Rumor has it that he has given up his catering service for O2 arena and is currently supplying the gastronomy for Schönefeld airport.

Although Mary shuns publicity, it's a fact that he has two construction sites underway in the city at the moment. There is the Haus Cumberland on Kurfürstendamm, a landmarked building complex with three courtyards and an overall area of 10.000 square meters. It will soon host a 500 square meter restaurant modeled after the traditional La Coupole in Paris. The opening is due to take place in late 2012.

© Florian Bolk

© Florian Bolk

A few meters down on Torstraße, the owners of Hotel Amano (who also run the KTV club on Chausseestraße) recently opened Hotel Mani with an adjoining restaurant. The newly constructed building radiates about as much charm as a wet blanket. It remains to be seen if lights, interior designs and the cuisine concept will brighten things up – but frankly, it would be surprising if Thorsten Bruchertseifer, Mario Grünenfelder and Till Hartmann didn't manage to pull it off: They're part of a highly functioning network in Mitte and each of their respective restaurants is going very well, and they're clever enough not to get ahead of themselves, although they have expressed plans for a new restaurant in the beletage and art ateliers inside the building that houses KTV.

Further South, Kreuzberg's restaurant landscape is continuing to shape up. Axel Burbacher (Galão) and Guan Guanfeng (who manages Toca Rouge and Yumcha Heroes along with Burbacher) have realized the most promising new concept: A trip to the People's Republic of China inspired them to open up a Dim-Sum restaurant. They took over the house at the corner of Pückler and Wrangelstraße that used to house Eckstück. The interior furnishing has been entirely redone to make room for large, typically Chinese round tables and a légère, rustic take out area.

A prominent steam generator sits in the middle of the dining area, dim sum baskets are piled up next to it so the waiters can easily pick up and distribute them to the tables on service carts, from which everyone can pick their choice of dumplings.

Around the corner on Köpenicker Straße, Walter Potts, aka Wally, negotiated constructional details concerning the new location for his White Trash restaurant. Its current space on Schönhauser Allee has become too pricey and Mitte/Prenzlauer Berg's development towards a slick residential area has been at odds with Potts' funky Rock 'n Roll pad. Potts has big plans for Kreuzberg: He already has a restaurant/club/concert space/gallery/tattoo studio, but now he wants to add a cooking school to the mix. He would like to recruit Wolfgang Müller, a star chef and locally well-known author, as well as TV-chef Stefan Marquard for a mix of high grade convenience food that contains meat, sausages and homemade sauces to go; But as of yet, nothing has been set in stone.

Even further down, in Schöneberg, Martin Hartmann is putting the finishing touches on his soon-to-open Cake Manufactory. Hartmann has jazzed up a former optometrist store, painted the walls in a strong green and dark red and connected all of his kneading machines and the stove. Starting in February, Hartmann plans to dish out a Sissi cake, and so far, trial baking sessions have even drawn in curious sweet teeth from the bus stop across the street. Until next month, Hartmann is busy optimizing the recipes and production flow. 

(emh)