While dry bread and tap water were served in the former women’s prison a few decades ago, the Wilmina hotel ensemble now reaches for the culinary stars. The Lovis restaurant with adjoining bar is already shining in Berlin‘s gourmet sky. And it continues to sparkle…
Liberating
House number 79 in Kantstraße seamlessly joins the others. It doesn’t really stand out. But wait, the façade is actually particularly beautiful. And what lies behind it is like discovering Hodgson Burnett’s Secret Garden. What was once a women’s prison and courthouse is now an enchanted ensemble with leafy courtyards. Wilmina is a hotel with rooms for cultural events and culinary hot spots. These include the fine dining restaurant Lovis, the Lovis Bar, the Lotta day bar and soon also a bakery.
Enchanting
Grüntuch Ernst Architekten wer working their magic in the redesign of the project. They roofed over the former lock corridor, glazed it and planted greenery all round. Illuminated ferns, vines and climbing plants in front of panoramic windows create a mystical terrarium ambience, exposed brick walls are now interior walls and the sky glows with Bocci lights: the magical Lovis restaurant scores with a unique atmosphere.
Enthusiastic
Chef Sophia Rudolph‘s contemporary German cuisine dishes are as refined and subtle as the Lovis architecture:
For me, cooking is a form of art because you can create a new dish with an original product and give free rein to your creativity.
For example, there’s the French-inspired leek millefeuille with beurre blanc and sea lettuce, the Asian-inspired vegetable maki with shiso and goat’s cheese or the local BBQ pork ribs with tamarind and sweetcorn.
Inspiring
And then there is the Lovis Bar with Nils Lutterbach as bar manager, who works in symbiosis with Sophia Rudolph. What is left over in the kitchen is sometimes utilised in the bar and vice versa. Both focus on the flavour experience. That’s why you won’t find any names on the bar menu. How do you still get your order? The drinks are numbered or organised alphabetically, each described with three words and arranged in a coordinate system from light to strong and sweet to dry. No. 4 – Lavender – Orange – Herbs, for example, is very strong and somewhere between sweet and dry. And the lavender comes from Sophia’s parents’ garden.
Enriching
The culinary centrepiece Lovis recently got a little sister in the form of the Lotta Tagesbar on Pestalozzistraße. It serves homemade snacks for breakfast, coffee and tea specialities, cakes and waffles as well as drinks for aperitifs. This will be followed in the summer by a bakery on Kantstraße that is going to provide bread for breakfast at the hotel and the restaurant. The neighbourhood will also benefit from fragrant bread rools.
Wilmina is a member of Lifestylehotels
photocredits: Wilmina: Patricia Parinejad; Markus Gröteke; Bocci: Harry Fricker