The Dry Gin & Beef Club, Berlin – Germany

Raw and pure – cultivated and demanding: potentially opposing characteristics that complement each other perfectly in Berlin’s Dry Gin & Beef Club. The balance between rawness and finesse is not only evident in the menu, but can be felt throughout the space: powerful, vibrant materials represent the interaction with fire, while botanical elements reflect the alchemical processes that go into an aromatically precise flavour experience. And all this in a place that could not be more ambivalent: AM TACHELES – an architectural jewel with an eventful cultural history: wild and unfinished – artistic and sophisticated. In our era of digital dematerialization, we have created a real space that can be comprehended with all the senses.
Sensory and physical
Once we were hunters and gatherers – today we are gourmets. A few select ingredients are all it takes to create a unique culinary experience. If Michael Wilhelmer had his way, only dry gin and dry-aged beef: a symbiosis of the spiritually ethereal and the naturally down-to-earth is the recipe for success of 2022’s restauranteur of the year. They now form the culinary backbone of the Dry Gin & Beef Club, and can also be experienced as a self-confident spatial statement.
The sensual journey begins in the bar, with a ceiling of fragrant botanicals and bartenders demonstrating their knowledge of arcane gins in front of illuminated, pharmacy-like shelves displaying over 600 varieties. The journey continues past the show kitchen, where meat is presented in a maturing cabinet and cooked in a flamboyant fashion in front of your eyes and ears. Flanked by two alcoves, this connecting area leads into the restaurant, where the restaurant’s specialities can be sampled in alcoves or at a table. Finally, there is a separate dining room that can be used for private events, tastings or seminars.
In addition to the taste, the haptic qualities of the space are not neglected: the chosen materials emphasise different gastronomic qualities. While smooth surfaces such as polished natural stone and green wall tiles emphasise the clear, aroma-laden character of the bar and the bunches of hanging herbs and visible bottles transform this area into a kind of gin laboratory, the restaurant is characterised by rough surfaces with a great material depth: black, charred yakisugi wood, a ceiling with a structure reminiscent of a barbeque grill and a raw screed floor open up an archaic world that is both elemental and dynamic.
The leather upholstery of the room’s alcoves and seating benches round off the picture. In contrast to this, the cultivated plant theme runs like a recurring green motif through the 280-square-metre club: in the flowering display in the bar, as pressed artworks in the flexible separate dining room and as botanical wallpaper in the bathrooms. Thus the delicacy of nature combines with the rawness of flame to create a harmonious and enjoyable, all-embracing encounter.
Wild and cultivated
Gin and beef are served with a slice of Berlin’s cultural history: the bar and restaurant are embedded in the newly designed city quarter AM TACHELES – a vibrant cultural centre with an eventful past. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Berliners enjoyed a stroll through the impressive Friedrichstraßenpassage. Then in 1928, the monumental building complex became the popular House of Technology thanks to AEG. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the building on Oranienburger Straße established itself as an underground arts and culture centre with an international appeal. Following its occupation, forced eviction and ultimate vacancy, the site was redeveloped from 2016 following a masterplan by Herzog & de Meuron.
Now new life, packed with creative possibilities, pulsates here – a fact that is also reflected in the Dry Gin & Beef Club. Between the poles of originality and subtlety, the genius loci continues in the interior, while emphasizing the ambitious stance of the food offering. The pure yet sophisticated interior design consistently emphasizes the (brand) image, which moves between true craftsmanship and artistic alchemy, pure flavor explosion and exquisite indulgence. It also precisely emphasizes the expertise and passion for high-quality meat and exquisite gin – in this case, the most important ingredients on the ingredients list.