Tim Raue opens new restaurant on Bötzow grounds Gregor Scholl mixes cocktails around the world
Restaurant La Soupe Populaire with Tim Raue and Bar Le Croco Bleu with Gregor Scholl have opened on the Bötzow Berlin grounds on 17 May 2013. The grounds of the former brewery are located in the heart of the capital, at the foot of Prenzlauer Berg. The rooms inspire with the charm of 19th century industrial architecture. After slumbering for several decades, the premises – purchased in 2010 by Professor Hans Georg Näder, owner and CEO of the medical technology enterprise Ottobock – has carefully been brought back to life. By taking on board Raue and Scholl, Hans Georg Näder has managed to gain two stars from Berlin’s connoisseur scene for his new project. “I’d like to create an outlandish, exquisite destination for everyone before we move into our creative quarter there in 2015 with the Ottobock Futurelab,” stated Hans Georg Näder about his undertaking.
Art and culinary art within historic halls “La Soupe Populaire” blends the charm of the listed brick building, disused since 1949, with a creative concept and art and culinary art: as part of the Studio House in which changing exhibitions of contemporary art are shown, La Soupe Populaire strikes up an exciting symbiosis with its environment. Modest vintage furnishings, tables set in minimalist style and warm lighting direct attention to the works of art exhibited throughout the Studio House and, of course, to what is served on the plate. The menu is part of the overall concept – for each art exhibition, Tim Raue creates a special menu, inspired by the oeuvres, which consists of four starters, four main courses and two desserts. Guests will have the pleasure of occupying one of the 54 seats surrounded by the exhibited artwork or will find a place at the Chef’s Table in the kitchen.
Two Berlin artists, Eva & Adele, have kicked off the programme with their exhibition “FUTURING”. Tim Raue has developed a menu quintessentially inspired by Berlin and Brandenburg featuring meatballs with beetroot and creamed potatoes; liver of rabbit with stewed apples, red pearl onions and marjoram jus; suckling pig aspic with remoulade sauce and ‘asphalt’ potatoes; Baltic salmon with horseradish, cucumber and frisee; as well as bee sting cake and ‘cold snout’. Due to the success of this menu - last but not least because Tim Raue has served some of these dishes to Barack Obama at an official banquet during his visit to Berlin in June 2013 - the German inspired dishes are featured on a fixed menu that will not be changed.
However, what’s special about the dishes, apart from the content, is that each course is served in a white Urbino porcelain dish from KPM Berlin, the Royal Porcelain Factory. Thus Tim Raue pays tribute to his idea of a ‘people’s kitchen’, created from the best produce and focusing on simple dishes. The price for a course is between nine and 22 euros. A selection of ten red wines, ten whites and a few rarities has been chosen to complement the food.
The kitchen concept is realised by Tim Raue’s long-time companion Michael Jaeger. The Berlin native worked with Tim Raue at Swissôtel from 2003 to 2007, and thereafter assumed responsibility for the Felix ClubRestaurant of the Adlon Holding as Head Chef. This was followed by a nearly three-year stint as Head Chef of Berlin’s trendy restaurant Grill Royal and a year of self-employment, before the 33-year-old assumed the position of Head Chef on Bötzow. Katharina Bambach is responsible for service. The restaurant at the Studio House opens Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from noon until 12:30 pm and from 5:30 pm until 10:30 pm.
Before or after visiting the restaurant, guests are invited to sip cocktails around the world at “Le Croco Bleu”.
Cocktail magic with morbid charm Gregor Scholl is the gentleman and uncrowned authority of the Berlin cocktail scene. Wellknown as the stylish host in West Berlin’s Rum Trader, with Le Croco Bleu he is now venturing into the eastern part of the city to also allure visitors with his extravagant cocktail creations here. In the brewery’s former machine room, Scholl is serving up mixtures for which he’s thought up exotic names, such as the ‘Acu-Acu’ – a rum-based cocktail with almond and lemon served in a classic 1920s cocktail glass. The name of the bar comes from a bizarre episode from the brewery’s history Scholl heard about: rumour had it that two crocodiles from the Berlin Zoo were brought to a pool in the Bötzow cellars for safekeeping at the end of World War II.
Scholl came to Berlin at the turn of the millennium to open Le Bar du Paris Bar as Bar Chef. Only a short while later, he took over the legendary Rum Trader. In 2006, he co-founded the Bar Convent Berlin, which promotes bar culture by bringing together bartenders, enthusiasts, distributors and producers. In order to give barkeepers the opportunity to widen their experience abroad, the Bar Convent awards the Hans August Schröder scholarship (named after the founder of the Rum Trader). It goes without saying that Scholl, who campaigned for this scholarship, is a jury member, able to track down the most passionate mixers. Moreover, Mr. Scholl was the victorious defender of permitting smoking in one-room drinking establishments before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
Alongside Scholl, cocktails are mixed and shaken by Bar Chef Michael Hanke, who has already demonstrated his skills at Zurich’s Widder Bar and Berlin bars The Regent, Bar Tausend, HBC and the Victoria Bar. The interior design of the bar has the hallmark of Anja Müller. The interior architect, inspired by the name of the bar, transformed the almost morbid, industrial charm of the machine house into a burlesque never-never land where industry and nature meet: mushrooms as bar tables, gnarled apple trees as decoration, velvet and leather furnishings, local fauna in taxidermy and two crocodiles create the setting for inspiring evenings – without a set closing time!
