Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). To Beef or not To Beef (TBONTB) as insiders now call the place offers Italian Contemporary Food at its very best – if you’re not the ardent vegetarian type. Many in this area are, but To Beef or not To Beef certainly caters for another crowd.
The interior is both sleek and neat, therefore attracting a lot of fellow Italians – tourists and locals alike, which creates a nice and authentic atmosphere even rare in Berlin nowadays. Whether tis easier in the mind (to quote Hamlet only once, for sure) to start with let’s say Carpaccio Fiorentino or ‚Sushi del Chianti’ (true enough, it’s their tartar) or one of the other half dozen delicious Antipasti depends for us only on the season you’re dining. During summer, we enjoy the evening on the terrazza watching the happy and gay walk by.
In or outside, a special treat at TBONTB is the way dishes are presented. On heated slate tablets, to keep the meat warm for one reason – a great idea, very italian in its approach. Italian as well, of course, is the tuscan supplier of this tremendously fine food. For Dario Cecchini, an impresario of great talent, every chunk or cut has the touch and feel as if it were a work of art given form and fabric by a sculptor. But then, surely, a sculptor he is in his Antica Macelleria placed at Panzano in Chianti. „Abandon all hope, you are now in the hands of a butcher“ he exclaims with a blinking eye if you enter his website.
But now, back to „To Beef or not To Beef“ and first choice for Secondi. The menu card is tucked into a small old red book. Very italian again, it seems to us. We decide to go for the Panzanese, half kilo as ‚Perfect Cut’, and all we can say after our first cut is: Perfetto! Of course, there is a philosophy behind all of this, a credo sounding a bit like stuff from an esoterics bible. Better let one of the very friendly and helpful waiters explain to you the well balanced components on your tablet and table. And don’t forget to order some extremely tasteful wine. TBONTB is an exclave and an embassy for the Chianti region. Opening another bottle of Castello di Lucignano both of us, gastrophilosophical Sophy and I, decided to go down to Dario during autumn. What about you – coming along to?
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To Beef or not To Beef, Akazienstraße 3, 10823 Berlin (D), Phone (0049-0)30-5499047, Mail info@tobeefornottobeef.de, Web www.tobeefornottobeef.de, Open 6pm to midnight
Antica Macelleria Cecchini: Mail macelleriacecchini@tin.it, Web www.dariocecchini.com
