A new neighborhood treasure was revealed at Arkonaplatz in summer 2014. Café Soba opened its doors and quickly established itself as a little haven between the hustle and bustle of Mauerpark and Kastanienallee. All delicacies, such as the lemon meringue pie or the goat cheese panini with fig mustard and walnuts, are homemade. A special recommendation for like-minded coffee fanatics is the organic coffee from Friedrichshain! Just to avoid all misunderstandings: the name Soba does not indicate the serving of Japanese buckwheat noodles in this case. Rather, Soba refers to the Serbo-Croatian background of Pero who opened the café together with Christin. In his mother tongue, Soba simply means “room”. Just another reason why Soba visitors feel right at home. (Photos: Benjamin Lindenkreuz)

Soba, Fürstenberger Str.14, 10435 Berlin-Mitte; map

Fri 9-18h, Sat-Sun 10-18h

Sarah Mie Nass came to Berlin in 2007, lives in Mitte and works in political communication. She has supported our “Cee Cee Berlin” book with translations, too.

Berliners like to spend their weekends at their weekend country houses. Some brave ones choose the permanent country life and build their own world that sometimes successfully mixes with the local color. This applies to Café “Zum Löwen”. An old guesthouse in the middle of the village, opposite the stone church, is where the ex-Berliners Lola Randl and Philipp Pfeiffer run their café. Here’s where an interesting mix of excursionists, the Uckermark locals and Berlin exiles meet. They also meet at the beautiful nearby Sabinensee lake. It’s a bit more quiet at Stiernsee, which can be reached within 20 minutes by bike. All work in Löwen-Café is done by Lola, Philipp and their friends: Ina serves espresso and cappuccino in a style that is still hard to find in the Uckermark region. Colin Reynolds, who is usually traveling to different markets with his mobile bakeshop “The Wanderer”, provides the cakes. Randl is also a filmmaker. At the moment she is shooting the documentary series “Landschwärmer“; a public press screening of the first season will take place in the old railway station of Wilmersdorf on August 2, 2014.

Zum Löwen, Dorfmitte 7, 17268 Gerswalde; map
Sat & Sun 10-18h

Elisabeth Schotte is one half of Süper Store. She lives in Berlin-Kreuzberg since 18 and deals with nature just like Woody Allen does: “I love nature, I just don’t want to get any of it on me.”