FoodNet

The gourmet's guide to Europe

1903

Page 124

Presented as published in 1903. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
For two people, including the champagne, the total came to 12 marks 75 = 12s. 9d. The German cham- pagne is not as bad as it is generally reported to be ; indeed, it is quite harmless, and rather pleasant. It is, however, rarely kept long enough in the cellars to give it a chance of maturing for the British taste. It has this advantage that it is what it pretends to be, whereas some of the bottles with French labels on them never saw Rheims. “ Herb ” does not guarantee what we in England understand by “ Dry.” The Rheingold in the Potsdamerstrasse looks from the outside like some great monastery, for it has very The Rheingold, high windows, which one might sup- Potsdamer- pose were built to give light to a chapel, strasse They give light instead to a great ban- queting hall. There are scores of different rooms in the Rheingold, decorated each in a different manner. There are cellars with walls of Venetian inlay. There are rooms panelled with veined marble, and a great room on the ground floor which is of rare woods, lighted by what appear to be large candles, but which are really electric lamps, and there is a room of bas- reliefs, and another room with a ceiling of polished copper, and two vast halls, which would not be out of place in a palace. On the side which faces the Bellevuestrasse there is a garden, sheltered by trellis- work, where hundreds of little tables are set out, and there is another little garden in the centre of the build- ing. Two bands make music in this vast cluster of dining-rooms, which can seat 4000 people. People come and go quietly 5 the place is never empty and Berlin 227 never full. There is no noise and no hurry, for there is no early closing in Berlin, but from 6 p.m. till the early hours of the morning the waiters are kept busy. It is a wonderful place, and, apart from its being a dining and supping centre, is quite one of the sights of Berlin. Another wonder of rooms decorated in various styles is the Kaiser Keller in Friedrichstrasse, where one wanders from room to room, each Kaiser Keller, 178 decorated after some well-known hall Friedrichstrasse in some German town. There is the Apostle Keller, with its carved figures of saints and elaborate dark woodwork, and there is a room where the ceiling is supported by a single column, and where the de- corations are of mediaeval saints painted on a gold background, and there is also a little garden where a fountain plays, and where palms give shelter to the tables. Another of the rooms is after the model of the Lubeck Schiffero;esellschaft. Lovers of good wines should not miss the Restau- rant Lutter, at the corner of Charlotten and Franzo- sischestrasse. This is an historic old Lutter tavern, which has been frequented by Franzosische- literary men and actors, as well as strasse government officials, for the last hundred#years. The walls are adorned with many interesting souvenirs of famous guests. Underneath the restaurant on the ground floor is a quaint old wine cellar. An inexpensive restaurant where the Zmn Riides simple German cookery is quite good, heimer, 178 and where there is a fixed-price dinner Friedrichstrasse for marks, is the Riidesheimer. Its owes its cele- brity to its excellent cellar of Rhine wines. The Trocadero, a magnificent new restaurant in Unter den Linden, is at present closed owing to the failure of its proprietor. 228 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe