Bars
Nobelhart & Schmutzig Billy Wagner celebrates a festival for all the senses
© Marko Seifert
Map
Opening Times
Tuesday till Saturday from 18.30
Last orders at 22.30
Special opening hours on request!
Address
Nobelhart & Schmutzig
Friedrichstraße 218
10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg
.How to get there
price level
Everything at Nobelhart & Schmutzig has a relaxed, almost accidental feel. The interior looks like a jazzed-up version of an 80s party basement, as does the kitchen, which happens to hold a Michelin star. And yet at the same time every detail seems carefully choreographed, with each facet and each action transitioning smoothly and playfully into the next.
This restaurant is something special, as is the man who runs it, Billy Wagner, multi-time winner of Germany's top sommelier honors. Demonstrating a remarkable sense of what is 'in,' he turned his Nobelhart & Schmutzig into something he calls a "communicative basis for good food," unlike anything else found in Berlin and perhaps really anywhere.
Nobelhart & Schmutzig is a total work of art. Like a Beuys installation. Like a Scandinavian holiday home. A flea market. A disco. It's literally built around a central stove, which chefMicha Schäfer and his crew edge around as they shine a unique spotlight on sublime products from their region. All to the sounds of real vinyl in the background.
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Evening after evening they lay out their table with heritage vegetables forgotten by recent generations, with humanely raised animals and exceptional products by small local producers. "Radically Regional" – that was Wagner's motto four years ago when he opened Nobelhart & Schmutzig and he's stayed uncompromisingly true to it.
So how does Berlin and its region taste? Night after night the kitchen provides a fresh answer. Not just in culinary terms, but verbal ones as well. Because the origin stories and preparation are also an integral part of the Nobelhart & Schmutzig experience. Those just looking for a bite to eat are in the wrong place and won't appreciate the enormous potential of this extraordinary star restaurant.
Guests sit around the long, u-shaped counter, as if they were theater-goers observing the chefs on stage. They are invited to follow how their next course is being put together. The hand-crafted plates from a Berlin-based Buddhist potter are often laid before the diner with only one or two ingredients on them.
Ten courses, presented by a rotating corps of servers, bring the individually curated products to their full idiosyncratic expression. With an enthusiastic recounting of their provenance. Such as rye sour dough bread by Florian Domberger, served with butter from Erdhof Seewalde that uses soured milk that has ripened for weeks at Nobelhart & Schmutzig to give it a lightly cheesy taste.
Or Jerusalem artichokes, buttery-tender inside and fantastically crispy outside, served with just a bit of caraway. Or pike from Lake Stechlin, combined with ramps and lardo from local pork. Or chicken with few-flowered garlic from Lars Odefey, who traverses northern Germany with his Label Rouge hens to give them juicy new meadows to peck at.
Sommelier Andreas Fissel cuts through it all, opening up his own personal treasury of creative but always perfectly paired beverages, be it German wines, fine brandies, beer or cherry wine from Denmark. He praises the aromas, reports on hobby vintners and small craft breweries and always finishes with a conspiratorial "Bitte!"
The audience is mixed and international. Young and old sit peaceably next to one another. Brought together by fascinating food and a masterfully devised overall experience. On the recently expanded list of the "World´s 50 Best Restaurants" Nobelhart & Schmutzig currently ranks 88th. And for good reason, as we unanimously agreed upon leaving this restaurant that is barely identifiable as such from the outside. – Rock’n’Roll!
