Hi everyone! I’m Nicole and usually it is my job to travel around Germany,
but the country is currently under a partial lockdown, and lockdown and travel is strongly discouraged.
That’s why I’m welcoming you at home, in Berlin which as you can see is unusually empty.
Already during Germany’s first lockdown in spring, bars and restaurants had to cease operations.
And after a short respite during the summer, they’re forced to close their doors again. Some… for good.
Today, I want to find out what that has done to Berlin’s culinary scene.
Spoiler alert: there’s still plenty on offer!
Kochu Karu in the district of Prenzlauer Berg serves a delicious combination of Spanish and Korean cuisine.
Right now just like all the other restaurants it’s closed but by no means out of business.
Kochu Karu now offers their delicious food to go. Sustainably packaged in pickle jars.
The Korean-Spanish power-couple behind this charming little joint wanted their delivery service to be environmentally friendly.
And if you return the jars, you’re rewarded with a bottle of wine.
How important was presentation to you. Creating something that would be visually appealing on the table.
The new set up lets you enjoy the restaurant’s classics in the comfort and safety of your own home.
From tweaking their menu for take-out to organizing delivery: A lot of work went into the emergency concept.
You won’t let it get you down?
Kochu Karu have taken lemons and made lemonade. Their concept is a hit. But can it work for anybody?
Next I want to take you to the Kurpfalz Weinstuben in Charlottenburg.
It’s actually were I’ve been coming for years with my friends for our traditional Christmas dinner.
And we always had to book way in advance to get a table. And now — it’s mandatory emptiness.
For host Vincenzo, November and December are usually the most important months of the year.
And now?
How are you holding up?
How hard is it for you to keep going?
Selling only ten meals a week can’t be very rewarding.
When it came into effect, this partial lockdown was quite controversial. What’s your opinion?
Different kinds of restaurants of course face different kinds of challenges in these times.
So what about the more high end establishments.
How do they manage, when their gourmet costumers just have to stay at home?
Nobelhart & Schmutzig is "vocally local". And during the lockdown, customers get to keep it even more local:
preparing Michelin Starred fare in their own kitchen.
This is owner Billy Wagner at a photo shoot for the new online menu.
How has this second lockdown, the lockdown light or hospitality lockdown been for you guys so far?
In May of this year we started with an online-shop which we created through the first lockdown.
So technically we are a little bit more better prepared than last time when everything hit us like very very hard.
So as we have a technical solution for being not serving inhouse we have an opportunity to serve our food outside.
I believe that everybody eats always but now only in a different way.
And you have to find your way of dealing with the situation as a restaurateur.
How did you come up with this take home or prepare at home menu?
As always we try to do something different to find a niche where we could do something that other people don’t do — like pizza for example.
So what we thought would be the best offer to put on the market would be just a meal that’s enjoyable
that you spend a long time to eat but that easy to prepare. And this based on the things that we do here.
So what do we have here?
Of course because of the way we cook it’s all the ingredients of what is available right now,
so these are Spätzle, Seleriac, that’s like one of our…. we call that classics of the restaurant.
This is an onion jam, we cooked onions for way too long in buttermilk.
That looks like Krautsalat.
Yes.
And that's it.
What has changed for you in the process of preparing food since the lockdown came and you are not serving people here anymore?
You’re preparing for them to full-proofly prepare at home.
Like working in a… more like working in a canteen than working in a restaurant like this.
You’re not serving a menu where you have to refine everything. You’re serving like a meal and it has to be transportable,
has to stay good for a while and still be tasty so that’s kind of nice to have that change as a creative person.
So everybody gets an instruction manual.…
Oh yeah, I'm going to need this.
… where it just says very precisely what to do. So you feel safe doing that and not just have boxes and don’t know what to do.
This situation is not only demanding for restaurants. Hotels are struggling as well.
And they too are starting to take care of Berliners in ingenious ways.
At Schlosshotel Grunewald, for example, you can now literally go window-shopping.
Hi! There’s a sign on the street saying you sell cocktails to go. Is that correct?
What’s on offer?
It’s late, I’m almost done working... 'Berlin Urlaub' — 'Berlin vacation' — that seems fitting
because these days all of us Berliners are encouraged to stick around, rather than travel. I’ll take one of those.
So how do you make it "to go"? I can’t imagine you’ll give me a disposable cup to balance all the way home?
That would be great! Thanks!
Did you come up with it yourself?
Not really ingredients reminiscent of Berlin… Passion fruit… rum...
Indeed. How long will it last?
How are you going to look back on 2020?
All right, I am all set for a delicious night in. I’m really excited to see how this goes.
This is a challenging time for everyone. And it’s really great to see how innovative entrepreneurs here in Berlin have gotten.
So wherever you are make sure to support your local business, your local restaurants, your favorite bars or even hotels.
Thanks for joining me today. Bye bye!