Michelberger Restaurant: The next Chapter

North, South, West, East

When we first opened our doors in 2009, the neighborhood was still forming. Friedrichshain around RAW area was quiet then. Not much more than a few places, a bit of movement at the Cassiopeia and the skate hall. The newly opened O2 World Berlin just finding its rhythm. Around our lunch table at Zum fröhlichen Michel, Club owners, office workers, artists and hotel guests gathered. Different lives, one table.

A lot has happened since. There were disco dinners and food passed in big bowls at long tables. Schnitzel Wednesdays came along. Later, dishes made for sharing, brought in by Alan Micks in 2015. When the kitchen was under construction, a Thai pop up appeared in the courtyard. During the pandemic, we prepared multi course meals to take home, when Andreas Rieger joined as research & development chef. And through it all, the Lunch Tray stayed. A selection of dishes, served together.

In 2019, our farm in the Spreewald was founded. From seed to harvest to the shared table, things came together. What’s grown there still reaches our outlets in the big city. Right from the beginning, it became clear: The menu would be dictated by nature’s rhythm, not the chef.

Since 2009, around 1.9 million yellow trains of the Berlin U-Bahn have passed our restaurant windows, connecting east with the rest of the city. What stayed with us through the years is simple: A focus on community. On the product. And yes, the schnitzel made it, too. We make space for people to meet. That’s the center of it all.

Over time, something like an invisible archive has formed. Full of meals, conversations, memories. Guests, friends, and team members have brought their tastes, their stories. Berlin as a place where it all meets. Often, it goes back to a mother’s kitchen, sometimes to a garden, but almost always, to sharing something with others, near or far.

We want to give this more space now and let these shared roots from north, south, west, east shape the menu. Give culinary heritage a new place at the table. After more than a year of thinking and building, the influences that have shaped how Europe eats together, are finding their way onto the evening menu.

For the next couple of weeks, you can still experience the winter beginning of it. Then spring will slowly arrive, one dish at a time.

Come by and join us on a journey back to where shared meals begin.

 

https://mailchi.mp/michelbergerhotel/restaurant2026-next-chapter