One of the reasons why Berlin has such a vibrant nightlife culture dates back to the days when the wall came down. People from the West just streamed across the former border, took over abandoned buildings (of which there are still plenty) and just started a club or bar or café. Before you know it you have places like Berghain, which are now known all over the world for their insane raves. Still these days, it seems young entrepreneurs keep finding gems of locations in which to start a business and my understanding is that the authorities there are nowhere near as anal about granting a permit as they are here in Amsterdam.
Granted, to serve great coffee you don’t really need a lot of space. Not even for a rave, h-actually as I found out during my recent visit to this year’s Fustion Festival where I raved inside a phonebooth with 5 other people. I had heard of this place called Concierge Coffee a few times and I did my best to visit them during my trip to Berlin in June but a full schedule prevented me from making my way out to Paul Linke Ufer, which is just a few minutes walk from Kottbusser Tor U-bahn.
Last Monday I was back in the city for two days and I took the chance to check out some new coffee places, despite the blazing heat that had firmly gripped Berlin. Located in a socalled “Gewerbekomplex” i.e. a large building complex that plays home to a huge array of companies including Red Bull and Mymusli, Concierge Coffee occupies about 15 m² inside the former janitors offices. Thus the name. Luckily there is plenty of outside seating otherwise you’d have to take your coffee to go if you’re not blessed with a fancy desk inside one of the many creative offices next door.
Owned by two close friends and former Bonanza Coffee Roasters employees, Benjamin and Namy, Concierge Coffee immediately struck me as one of the most important elements of office life in this part of Kreuzberg. Customers came holding notepads, bitched about their last meetings or were just on their way out to visit a client. Others just sat on the narrow benches inside the drive way, always pulling their legs in to let a delivery van pass.
Ben and Namy run their place with lots of love for detail and great passion. While Ben went to fetch some ice for their iced drinks, Namy told me they were so impressed with the standard at Bonanza Coffee Roasters that they insisted on getting a custom blend made specially for them. Offering only espresso based drinks at this moment, they use a blend consisting of 80% Guatemala and 20% Ethiopia for all their drinks. But as Ben confirmed after his return: “As soon as we’ve cleared some space here we also want to offer filter coffees. We might even start roasting one day but that’s really for later.”
Not your most typical café, Concierge Coffee is truly engrained in the fabric of the local community and if you happen to pass by any time soon you can enjoy a great iced flat white on one of the many benches outside or even take it to go and and soak up the calm of the Landwehrkanal. Going by the limited space inside, I would guess few tourists make their way out there during winter. Going back to my intro though, Concierge Coffee is another classic example of a business makes excellent use of an abandoned space and what could be better than walking into work every day with a cup of perfectly made coffee? I’m a wee bit jealous even!
