When you think of St. Pauli, especially as a foreigner, you think of Hamburg’s famous red light district, football and the biggest open air fun fair in Europe. Or, if you know a bit about Hamburg’s specialty coffee scene, you may have passed by here in previous winter months when Linus Köster was running his pop up Tørnqvist. Now that Linus has moved on to greener pastures, someone had to come in a fill the void, and that someone is Veljko Tatalovic of local coffee heroes Playground Coffee.
Housed inside a cozy space that previously hosted a local fashion designer, Playground’s new HQ is the perfect addition to their existing coffee bar inside Otto Burger and the cute Underground Kiosk by city hall.
The interior is a fun combination of playful design elements, toys, handmade furniture and top notch coffee making equipment. The stools and bar elements were made by local furniture maker Andreas Raab (www.inlignoveritas.de) while Veljko chose a Victoria Ardiuno White Eagle to pull his espresso shots from.
Unlike his other two locations, this space lends itself to trainings and cuppings, but it also works great for just hanging out and perving over Veljko at work. Just kidding.
What’s nice to see is that Hamburg’s coffee scene continues to develop and local entrepreneurs are not afraid to set up shop in parts of town that are in serious need of more life and great coffee.
