Katz Orange | Mezcal - widening horizons

Guests are greeted by a burly, tatooed giant in a t-shirt: "The Mezcal tasting is upstairs at the end of the stairacse" he tells us and kindly asks, “May I take your coats?”

As more guests pour in, the ones that have already arrived sit on creaking wooden chairs, in front of massive iron tables and long wooden panels. “You can sit wherever you want” says the Australian waitress in English. Axel Huhn, the tasting director and owner of the Mezcaleria in Kreuzberg, is still busy setting up a beamer that will project pictures of Mexican villages onto a screen in the restaurant. Why Mexico? It's where Mezcal, an agave liquor, is originally processed. Huhn knows every manufacturer personally - he worked as an architect in a development aid project in Mexico when he first began thinking about importing Mezcal overseas.

“Tequila is made from one sort of agave – but there are two to three hundred in total” explains Huhn. Los Danzantes, for example, is made from the Joven Agave. It is to be the first sample of the night and explodes in your mouth like Stroh rum. They tell us it's supposed to taste like lemons but the lemon flavor seems close to impossible to catch at first. After a couple of sips, though, Mezcal's countless dimensions of taste start to unfold: the Alipús San Andres tastes like marzipan candy, the Real Minero weighs down our tongues like a sated chocolate pear tart fresh out of the oven. And it doesn't stop there1 All the mezcal we taste proves just utterly amazing – watch out, whiskey lovers!

The waiters sport baggy jeans, t-shirts and sneakers, as does Ludwig Cramer-Klett, manager of the Katz Orange. “It's an undogmatic, spiritual project” explains Cramer-Klett. He's a bit thrown off when asked if he is the bar/restaurant's sole proprietor, but insists that “everyone from the waiting staff should feel at home.” It is important to him that everyone, be they guests or employees, “leave happier than they were when they came in.”

Well, doesn't that just sound like the world's perfect boss?  But Cramer-Klett seems credible when he explains his concept. “In the end, it's all about love. Love is absolute, and it has the power to connect everyone.” This might sound a bit “Birkenstock”, as Cramer-Klett admits, especially so when he continues speaking: “I had several mind-expanding experiences on a trip through Peru. After that, I had to launch a project in Berlin.” So why the restaurant trade, a sector in which he had zero previous experience? Becasuse in Berlin, it's about getting people to open up.”

And open-minded dinner guests will definitely fare well at Katz Orange. The menu boasts salads made from ingredients like red beet leaves and cucumber peels. “We use things you would normally toss out” says Cramer Klett. With a top-class kitchen staff backing him that includes former Tim Raue employees, even the most unusual sounding ideas are guaranteed to win over adventurous urban epicureans.

The Mezcal tasting is the perfect event for the crowd at Katz Orange, one that's unafraid to enter new territory when it comes to food and drinks. But Cramer-Klett doesn't want to be a liquor missionary: "We don't want people to follow one certain world view. We want to say 'look how awesome the world is'!

(mapu)