#44 | Lovis Bar, Berlin, Germany
Last Visit: May 2024
The topic of a “gastronomy concept” or “gastro bar” in the sense of an equivalent combination of a restaurant and a bar is becoming increasingly popular in many ways. In the US, many a solid cocktail has been served in normal restaurants, steakhouses and so on for decades. Since the bar renaissance, often at “craft” level too, with all kinds of macerations and your typical bar gimmicks, just like in any “pure” cocktail bar. In Europe, this is still not as common today and the combination is more often found together with more modern, usually high-priced and progressive cuisine, whether it may be in London, Paris, or Berlin.
In the latter city, we visited 4 such bars during our recent trip alone, which is already a sign of what a big trend this is in the German capital. Not because we were specifically looking for these oh-so-trendy concepts, by the way, but because we asked for and researched the most exciting recommendations that we hadn't already covered many times over. These were the relaxed, very open and modern Kink, the now closed Birdsnest by legend Arnd H. Heissen, the Bonvivant, which I still had great memories of from 3 or 4 years ago and finally, to round off our tour, the Lovis. I was actually most excited about the Lovis thanks to the great looking, modern website and also because of two recommendations from friends I trust very much (including LT author Martin Cordes), which did build up some expectations at the same time.
I would therefore have liked to post a review here that includes the food, of course. That will be the case with two of the other concepts mentioned. Unfortunately, however, Lovis is located in the cozy, beautifully green Charlottenburg district and therefore much further west than the other bar bubbles in Berlin. As a result, it was moved to the very end of the tight schedule, and “end” here means that I literally rushed straight from there to the train and had to ignore a sandwich I had ordered half an hour earlier. Apart from that, the restaurant with the more elaborate dishes is physically separated from the bar, which only serves a few snacks/starters, some of them from the restaurant. But hey, I was still more than happy with my visit, so let's go through exactly why.
You've already seen one of the main aspects several times, thanks to the photos: The design, the aesthetics, the uniqueness of it! Time and again, I think for brief moments in some locations, that I just don't particularly like modern, clean design, especially in cities like Berlin. Until I realize: No, it's just the incredibly bad uniformity of so many hipster cafés and concept stores that trigger this certain — I won't name it — taste in my mouth. But here everything is just right, from the copper sign to the slightly leafy courtyard to the historic basement of the bar itself.
The architectural project of the entire building complex is quite the interesting story. Among other things, a former actual court and women's prison were completely renovated and converted, and a completely new building was added to the ensemble. At the main entrance to the complex is the “Amtsalon”, where cultural, art and event venues can be found. Design is a top priority here, with modern white surfaces similar to those in the Lovis Bar. At the east entrance is the Wilmina Hotel, its rooms are located in the cells of the former prison (which have of course been extensively opened up and thus enlarged). Through the green inner courtyard you reach the old red brick buildings, with the Lovis Restaurant and the Lovis Bar, which are spatially separated. The restaurant impresses with large, spacious areas, a kind of large dining hall with extremely high ceilings, which plays with wood, modern design elements and the red brick.
The Lovis Bar, on the other hand, is very clean inside, but with lots of personality. The gray texture and fabric of the seating, the line artwork that runs through the entire bar, the brown apothecary bottles and the singular light source on the wall behind the counter where the bar itself is located, are all just great and effortlessly elegant. The absolute highlight of this Berlin trip overall: The bubble style lamps you can see above. The “Shut up and take my money” meme immediately comes to mind, but then again, I'd rather take 10 days in Tokyo including a bar tour than pay what just a few of the lamp installations would probably cost as a consumer…
The menu continues the minimalist but nevertheless interesting design line. If you're primarily there for the bar, there's a medium-sized selection of bar snacks; in addition to the usual suspects, a “Croque Mademoiselle” (the one I was desperately hoping for in a hurry), with grilled sourdough bread, cream cheese and kimchi, as well as fine vintage sardines stand out from the selection. The cocktail page in particular (see below) also falls in line with the design language. With a simple visual graph, on which the X-axis is divided into light and strong and the Y-axis into dry and sweet, making it easy for guests to categorize the drinks. Additionally, the cocktails are simply numbered and always described with just three simplified flavors instead of specific ingredients, which are of course explained in more detail on request by the staff and bar team.
Speaking of the team, I found the service to be elegant and reserved, but also friendly, open and approachable in its explanations. Admittedly, I was also lucky, as I was able to enter the bar exactly 10 seconds after it opened and had the bar manager, Nils Lutterbach, to myself for most of the just over an hour that was available to me.
As you can see below, the drinks themselves are also served in a rather simple, modern style, for example in the now well-known glasses from Nude. The coasters were another detail that I immediately liked. As a lover of great coasters, you often have to lower your expectations in bars — which have to pay attention to cost, easy cleaning and, unfortunately, thieves. However, by continuing the bar's line artwork on otherwise plain white cardboard, they gave them a nice recognizable feature and were more interesting to me than some run-of-the-mill bar logo napkin/coaster combination. Don't worry, that was the last comment from a design/aesthetic fetishist about any external, purely visual detail, let's focus on what probably matters most:
No. 25
| Walnut
| Green Tea
| Lemon
Let's start with the interesting breakdown of the ingredients. Here we have a walnut eau de vie, Manzanilla sherry, a hint of Chartreuse, cold infused green tea and a homemade lemon cordial. As you can see: not every ingredient, such as sherry and Chartreuse in this case, can even be guessed from the list of three in the menu. But with a rigorous concept like this and the openness to explain everything, that doesn't really bother me, although I usually tend to be on the “tell me everything exactly as it is in the menu” side. Situated right in the middle of the mentioned visual graph in terms of strength and at the dry end, I was expecting a nice apéritif drink with some unusual notes. Thanks to the nuts and tea, that's exactly what I got. A light sour with pleasant, almost zen-like, dry aroma. The tea and walnut both came through in a rather silky, elegant way. I found it particularly positive how more and more of the sherry shone through as the temperature rose slightly, adding a few more complex notes to the drink.
No. 65
| Bread
| Butter
| Quince
Here we have one of my top 3 drinks of the entire Berlin tour, which included around 10 bars! The “secret” ingredients? A blend of 3 sherries (Manzanilla, Fino and Amontillado), which are fatwashed with butter. A self-made sour bread syrup from the leftovers in the Lovis kitchen is then added, as well as a quince cordial. Sounds wonderful, and it is indeed. A very aromatic nose with intense, buttery notes, yellow fruit and intense yeast notes from the sherry and bread. In the mouth it is an umami sensation, full-bodied, candied quince, oxidized grapes and yeasty notes, again from the sherry, as well as bread crust. I've never had such a combination of “hearty” notes on the one hand and such a silky-smooth body on the other, a perfect intensity and a drink that will be remembered by me for years to come.
Cocktail H
| Orange
| Coffee
| Chai spices
I always find non-alcoholic drinks particularly interesting as a test subject in bars with a more culinary focus, which is why I chose one of the 4 non-alcoholic signatures (which in turn are marked with letters instead of numbers). Here we have a non-alcoholic orange liqueur, plus extra concentrated chai. The coffee is interestingly included by adding coffee instead of water to create the runny honey. The result was a very pleasant nose, thanks to the chai spices grated over it, as well as a very fresh start while tasting. For me, the chai clearly dominates over the coffee, which was more of a subtle flourish in the finish, but this in no way detracts from the overall quality of the drink. A very nice, smooth and yet intriguing non-alcoholic chai drink, with nice orange notes to freshen things up. I would love to see something like this in high-end cafés as an alternative to coffee, for example.
The Lovis simply fulfilled all my expectations. That's it, that's the conclusion. No, really, there's not much more I can say. I already knew about the understanding of aesthetics from the website and when I was there, I was drawn in with that same immersion as I had hoped. I'd already heard from friends about the cuisine that if there was more marketing in this direction, you'd actually expect a Michelin star, and the drinks also impressed me with their culinary quality. The No. 65 in particular was a highlight of our trip, as restaurant bars in particular are often on the aromatically exciting but overall very light side, and this one really packed a punch (despite the low alcohol content). All the more reason to regret missing out on my Croque Mademoiselle, but I'll definitely pick it up from Nils next time and try the actual Lovis Restaurant as well.
/rds
The cocktail part of the menu during our visit (click for original size):
