The House of Small Wonder

Because everyday life is not about the big wonders, its about the small wonders that make things just a little more pleasant" is the slogan of this hidden gem in a corner of Mitte.

The House of small wonder is hidden on the first floor of a, on the outside, cheerless building. It’s easy to pass by, even if you know it must be there somewhere. Once you’ve passed the heavy front door you know you’re at the right place, just by seeing the fairytale staircase at the end of the hallway. On the top of the stairs awaits a wonderful decorated place full of green and blue tints, wallpaper with birds and tons of plants.

We ordered one of the sandwiches with, a perfectly proportioned corn soup and a salad, and a Japanese rice breakfast with miso soup. The food is simple but tasty, a good start of a new day, and the service is friendly.

Carousel

There are playgrounds everywhere in our neighborhood – Swings, Sandpits, Slides, Climbing Frames, Seesaws – Everything – And then there is this small muddy playground around the corner – We pass it a few times per week on our way to school – Just a carousel with some big ropes – Some really big branches on the ground – And a whole lot of mud – But the girls – The girls love it there – Hanging in the ropes – They can easily hang in there for an hour or so – And having fun! – Laughs all around – More than in any other playground anywhere 

Father Carpenter

New coffee shop in town. For now it’s just a pop up behind de 14 oz store. New coffee around the corner of course has to be tested and this one definitely is a gain. If not for the coffee, than for the good service or the wonderful location. Perfect for us with an enclosed garden: Girls running around, mum and dad sipping cappuccino’s 

Yam Yam

Sometimes during a Sunday walk the girls fall asleep in their stroller and when they do we quickly walk to a nearby terrace. Today I’m happy to be in the neighborhood of Yam Yam, a small Korean restaurant I’ve been wanting to go to for a while now to try their Bibimbap. It indeed is a very comforting dish.

The girls woke up before the food was on the table, but that was more than ok. We ordered them some fried Mandu (dumplings), so they were happy as  well. The noodles were a bit too spicy for me, but if you do like spicy this also is the place to go. We had a wonderful lunch. Hopefully next time they’ll fall asleep around the corner of Yam Yam again

Puddle Fun

Confiserie Orientale

Our oldest has started preschool, a very big step. Nobody understands her and she doesn’t understand anybody back. Luckily children are flexible, do not need words to play.

To make it a bit into a party we visit another terrace after school every day. Just these first weeks of course. Today we went by Confiserie Orientale, a Turkish tearoom with a showcase full of treats. She picks a chocolate cookie, me a mascarpone and pear cake. Wow! I’m not a pie person, but this is beyond delicious. Well done!

Shiso

Definitely a favorite place for both us as for the children. This has to do with their homemade fries. A special treat after a morning of playing. They really do have delicious hamburgers and what I like best: they have fantastic veggie burgers as well. Today we had their Toad burger, with a Portobello instead of meat

Water

Still steaming hot. We can’t do a thing about it, but trying to cool down. We go by Tiny Store, they understand what children need and have a whole bunch of filled up water balloons in front of their store. After done throwing we head over to Volkspark am Weinberg to play in their cold water fountain

Sale e Tabacci

An evening out together we decide to go to Sale e Tabacchi, an, as far as we’re concerned, authentic Italian restaurant. We love to go to Italy, especially the area around Lake Como, and here it feels as if we’re there in their small patio garden. The respectable elderly gentlemen, in their impeccable white shirts, who serve us. The Italian couple dining at the table next to ours. Last but not least, their lovely Italian food. If only for their fantastic Insalata di Polpo I will definitely return here.

Claerchens

Just because we love this place some much, especially in summer times. Beer and Pizza’s. Everybody who visits Berlin should go to this adorable spot, we try to take everyone that visits here. Today is fathers day so we all go out for Pizza's and Beer. 

Meanwhile it has become my dad’s favorite place and he doesn’t visit without at least having a beer in Claerchens Garden.

Mozzarella Bar & Bottega

Two of my dearest girl friends came over for the weekend. Daddy took care of the girls for the whole weekend so I was able to spend all of my time chatting and eating with them. We did a whole lot of that these three days and I was able to visit a couple of the places on my list among which the small Mozzarella Bar on a corner in the Augusststrasse I’ve walked by many, many times these last months.

It is totally worth visiting, if not for their delicious mozzarella and antipasto platters, then for the cheerful waiters (or the fact that it’s Brad Pitts favorite Italian). It helped that the Dutch football team gloriously won a game the other night and these guys kept on congratulating us. But these mozzarellas of theirs are really something to come back to another time. We weren’t able to decide which one of the five different we liked the best. 

Schendelgasse

The playground at Schendelgasse is another of our favorite playgrounds. Not the playground itself it what attracts us that much –it probably is one of the least fancy playground in the area and could really use a bit of paint-, but the area around it that makes it a good place to spend out weekend in and around. It’s situated next to the Alte Schoenhauserallee and this gives us the opportunity to go out with the whole family, have breakfast together, let the girls entertain themselves and have mum and dad run errands in turns like going to the hair dresser, Flip Flop, &other stories or one of the other good places this street and the surrounding streets hold.

The best place for breakfast in the Alte Schoenhauser is definitely Zeit fur Brot. No weekend passes without us visiting this place for either a full breakfast including some yoghurt and sandwiches, just a cup of coffee or a cappuccino together with their ab-so-lute specialty (something you must absolutely try when in this area): their Zimtschnecken, which are the most fluffy cinnamon rolls I’ve ever tasted. Very sticky business, but so good. They also come with marzipan, white cholate or maple and walnut, but for me the original cinnamon ones are the very best.

And while we have our breakfast, coffee or snack, the girls are happy to entertain themselves on the swing, slides or in the huge sandpit.

Mogg & Melzer

Pastrami! Best ever! I’m not a big pastrami fan per se, but I guess I never ate a real pastrami sandwich. After seeing this movie that Imre send us I couldn’t not go to Mogg & Melzer and have one of their pastrami sandwiches. We waited till Imre was visiting to go there and I kind of regret it because their sandwiches are really, really good. All of it, the mustard, the meat, the pickle and definitely also the coal slaw.

It’s located in an old Jewish girl school on the auguststrasse and easy to miss because it’s hidden behind big wooden doors. It’s a cozy little place and we were in luck to find a place immediately when we walked in, but otherwise it would definitely have been worth the wait. The only thing I was sorry about was to have taken the small sandwich and not the big one.

Krausnickpark

Hidden away behind a big gate on the Oranienburgerstrasse we found this beautiful and serene courtyard. For us it really is a little paradise. Children are playing; parents are lying down in the grass or reading their book on a bench. When it’s really hot there even are children’s paddling pools for the little ones to cool off. Even on a hot day like today it seems as if the air is a little bit fresher here. We are very, very happy to have found this magnificent place and will be found here much more often on the hot Berlin summer days. 

  

Hackesche Höfe

Today the babysitter is there to watch the little ones for a couple of hours so me and my oldest can go out and have some quality time together. We visit daddy again and have cakes and coffee, than we stroll around the Hackesche Höfe just for the fun of it. One of the quieter courtyards there is a big big chestnut tree with a small little playground at its foot. She loves it and since it’s her afternoon she may totally decide what she wants to do. What seems to be just sitting there under the big chestnut and muse a bit.

Barcomi's

Today the babysitter came to play with the twins in the morning for a couple of hours so my eldest and I could go out together for a change. Of course papa really wanted to join to on this occasion so first thing we do is head over to Barcomi’s for some coffee and cakes. I’m not really a sweet tooth myself but Barcomi’s New York cheese cake is one I can’t resist either. The location is also great, a hidden courtyard behind Sophienstrasse. We take the cheesecake as a desert, for I cannot leave Barcomi’s without having a plate of their fantastic beetroot salad. Afterwards we just stroll around the city and visit every playground we stumble upon because that what she loves most.  And chatting of course.

Clärchens Ballhaus

I discovered Clarchens Ballhaus via Instagram when one of the bloggers I’m following, Sandra Jutto, had lunch there. It looked to me as a place I would like to visit. I decided to go there that very same day and since we have already been three times. It is the perfect place for an early dinner with kids. Later in the evening it can get really crowded and there’s always a chance a dance lesson will start in the middle of your dinner, but their big empty space in the middle, where later on there will be dancing, is a great place for the kids to run (or dance) around while you eat your delicious pizza.

One visit we started outside in their garden but halfway went indoors because it started raining. Inside the band was practicing for their performance later that evening, our oldest girl had the best evening dancing around the ballroom floor. I haven’t been to their upstairs room yet, but hope to go there soon. It’s said to be beautiful

Das Blaues Band – Breakfast edition

Last day my sister is here, she takes the train in the afternoon so the plan is to have a big lunch (with definitely their beet root salad and some cheese cake for desert) at Barcomi’s deli, but unfortunately it has both rained and frozen tonight so the streets are beyond slippery. On our way along Alte Schonhauserallee we see about six people falling down really, really hard within five minutes or so. This makes us decide to enter the first place we walk by that serves lunch which happens to be Das Blaues Band.

In the back of the place are some nice little benches with low tables which are perfect for our entourage with the three small ones who are really hard to tame these days. We settle down, tie one of them in a high chair and order three of their breakfast asap (with coffees of course). I have to say that this was a very successful operation. We ordered their pancakes with bananas, one Englisch breakfast and one Scandinavian breakfast. We actually manage to keep the kids happy for more than 45 minutes with all the pancakes, sausages, smoked salmon and bread rolls. With a very patient waiter who we were very happy with.

Das Blaues Band

My parents are visiting this week and because my dad is also here for work I have the chance to spend a couple of days with my mum & the kids and have an evening out with her. We went to the big Christmas market on Gendarmenmarkt  where we were able to decrease the average age with a few years. On our way back we walked by DasBlaues Band which looked very cozy so we decided to have dinner here – after bringing the kids home –

The diversity of people as we came in around seven made me immediately like this place. A single guy reading his book, a father with a couple of kids and a group of students in the back. A nice place where locals seem to come, with a simple menu for a small price. We had the daily special, I forgot the name, some thin sliced pork with a mayo sauce and fresh parsley, quite good. Main courses are really simple, salad and pasta, nothing fancy but fine and they really serve Germans portion. Both of us weren’t able to finish our plate. Did have a little room left to share one of their rosemary panna cotta’s with blueberry sauce though. Very yummy, something I will definitely copy next time I’m making it.

Summarized it’s a nice place for a quick bite, sweet waitress, noting fancy also not expensive and really close by our place. Might try with the whole family as soon as the twins can eat without making a complete mess.