Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). There really is nothing fancy or frivolous about the place. Within minutes you feel as if you were at home. The warm, friendly and kind atmosphere makes you be at ease in an enchanting parlour out of those bygone times granny always told you about. Those white wooden tables and chairs, the shining chandeliers, these and many more details of decoration do combine splendidly to create a wonderful cosy café.
It is a setting apt for a location off fashionable Savignyplatz not far from upper Ku’damm. Here Berlin has always been open minded and set on keeping up the cosmopolitan flair. The area around or this “Kiez” as Berliners tend to say tenderly is a melting pot where things don’t brew over and lids stay on top. A neighbourhood then made up of residents from around the world, plus some tourists of course. They all meet at their home away from home “Die Stulle”. Stulle is colloquial for some sort of a sandwich or sarnie or buttie but not stottie even if that word is real close. Well, try and find out what it can be here. Far from the ordinary, of course!
Since they opened “Die Stulle” on March 27, 2012, Marlene Richter has been the one for figures out of the team, a proprietor you can’t easily sweep off her feet. As trained restaurant clerk with a degree in business administration she takes care of the café together with Anne Wiedelmann, not only a skilled ice cream manufacturer and a native Berliner. Always full of ideas but keeping an eye on this or that she seems to be up and about all the time. It’s great to see the two working on how to make it a worthwhile stay for their guests.
Although the atmosphere in their ‘dining room’, which was jointly designed by Marlene and Anne and fabricated with the help of five friends, is really pleasant, we do take advantage of the wonderful weather and enjoy at 21 ° Celsius a lovely homemade lemonade on the street terrace. In the meantime chef of the cuisine Caspar is preparing food for the mealtime – bread being the basis, basically. A well-known bakery, Naturbäckerei Melzer, supplies “Die Stulle”. The dough is “a hundred per cent pure nature out of healthy raw materials from regional producers,” Anne tells us, joining in for a cup of coffee. “To achieve that delicious taste bread can have” she explains heartily “the dough is allowed to take all the time it needs to ferment well.”
Bread is obviously cut into generous slices and then on top comes whatever the guest may wish. From just butter for the Butterstulle to lard for the Schmalzstulle up to vegan sarnie the delicious offer goes. On the Stulle the Stulle will add tomato cream cheese or on request even sausage. A “Strammer Max” with cooked rosemary ham, fried eggs and gherkin will be served, also “peasant bread” with smoked salmon along with salad and horseradish. For us, it has to be Birne Brie on bread: Brie cheese mingling with slices of pear, nuts and raisins – one of the classics of “Die Stulle”. The pear is caramelized, the soft cheese really creamy and to go with it the apricot mustard cream a real treat.
“Die Stulle” offers a lot more than just some perfect sandwiches. The weekly menu reveals for instance not only a spring salad with pineapple chicken shish kebab and caramelised nuts but also an avocado tartar with buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, salad and bread chips. Sounds as good as it tastes. Soups are served also – a cauliflower and coconut soup with grilled prawns and country bread or a vegetarian Red Lentil stew with olive Pistu and bread. Even tarte flambée with bacon, onions and sour cream is part of the substantial program for a well-served public. Sandwiches like “Club Stullen Sandwich” with pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon, tomato, lettuce, fried eggs and chef sauce, or even burgers like the Mexico Chicken burger with grilled chicken, guacamole, cheddar cheese and tortilla chips are by no means all that is on offer.
Summing it up: if you’re looking for something else then pizza and pasta don’t go to the tenth 50 per cent off for 24 happy hours daily sushi joint. Don’t be stupid (or stulle as Berliners say). Stay at “Die Stulle” just for one coffee and one sarnie and you’ll come again for sure. Ah yes, and they are into catering as well. Call a Stulle then!
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Die Stulle, Carmerstraße 10, 10623 Berlin-Charlottenburg, Phone: 030 31179403, email: info@die-stulle.com
Opening times: Mondays to Fridays from 9 am to 7pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am to 7pm.
