In September 2022 a small patisserie opened on Reuterstraße: Marc. Inside are minimalist cabinets where small white tarts are displayed like expensive jewels, garnished with chocolate, pistachios and fruit. Yes: this is a whole shop full of pavlovas. When I first saw this, my heart skipped a beat: when I was little, my mother would make meringues from beaten egg whites left over from other recipes, whipping cream and vanilla to go on top. They tasted how I thought heaven might taste. Many years later, when I was in Paris for the first time, I ordered an unknown dessert and discovered that my mother’s sweet concoction in fact had a name: that of the ballerina Anna Pavlova, whose tutu is the said to be the inspiration for this dessert of meringue, cream and fruit. From then on, I would tell people about my favorite French dessert at every opportunity. I always left out the fact that New Zealand and Australia in fact lay claim to this dessert as their national dish – France just sounded better.
Marc himself has been a presence in Neukölln for a long time: the French pastry chef was a key figure at now-closed cafe Two and Two. Marc’s own shop was designed by Antoine Fichaux, with a lighting concept from Altbeau. At the moment the options are limited to coffee and pavlova, which incidentally was the chef’s signature dessert back in his student days. Will the selection grow? Perhaps, Marc says, but he doesn’t want to promise anything. And he doesn’t have to: these little white tartlets are more than enough to make you happy.
Text: Hilka Dirks / Photos: Luna Schaffron
Marc, Reuterstr.53, 12047 Berlin–Neukölln; map
@marc.patisserie
