Plate #1 at Gottlob.
There is no shortage of brunch places in Berlin. I’m an early riser, and am always starving a soon as I wake up, so brunch for me looks a lot more like lunch. However, one Sunday, I decided to check out the buffet at...
Plate #1 at Gottlob.
There is no shortage of brunch places in Berlin. I’m an early riser, and am always starving a soon as I wake up, so brunch for me looks a lot more like lunch. However, one Sunday, I decided to check out the buffet at Gottlob, a popular joint in the Schöneberg neighborhood in West Berlin.
Lucky for my friend and me, the sun was shining that day, and we arrived at Gottlob in our spring finery—her in white linen, me in a taffeta bubble skirt. Lilacs bloomed everywhere. Seeing how grey Berlin is most of the time, it was a day to be savored.
We dug in with gusto. The buffet, horribly configured, was jammed up into a corner. There was one narrow passageway that served as both the entrance and exit to the roasted vegetables, breads, cured meats, cheeses, and milchreis, so the scene was like something out of a crowded Whole Foods parking lot.
I zipped through the table, and came out with samples of nearly everything—smoked salmon, crunchy arancini, flaky phyllo pastry stuffed with fresh cheese and sweet potatoes, chicken and swiss chard in curry sauce, cannellini beans, sausages, pan-fried white fish (unidentifiable). My friend enjoyed heaps of roasted artichokes and eggplants. There were cured meats, hams, some salads, several types of puddings, and muesli as well. Far too much for one Miss Cheesemonger to fit on one plate. So I had two, and they were both glorious. On top of that, my friend had been raving for a week about their croissants, so I piled a couple of those in as well.
We rolled on out of there as happy as two Berlin bears who have discovered a pot of honey, or in this case, a brunch buffet.