If you go to the Grill Royal on Fridays, you can learn a lot about Berlin. How modern luxury is defined in the city, for example. Or where Berlin bohemians prefer to meet for extravagant evenings; what she chooses from the menu, what she talks about. And above all: that even the best restaurant can only be a chic extension of the city in which it is located.
Because they also exist elsewhere, the decadent dinner places, which conceptually move between the best posh gastronomy and frivolous scene shops. Munich’s Tantris, for example, and most recently The Paradise Now in Düsseldorf. The kitchen and service are very good, and the facilities are wonderful. But the audience? The public!
On Fridays at the Grill Royal it shows itself in a way that only Berlin can show. The accurately tailored suit is worn with the same naturalness as Gucci jogging pants a few tables down; a highly potent mix of art, culture and business, Hollywood stars and people who can’t actually afford the Wagyu Entrecôte on their plates. Now it will be exciting to see how this atmosphere can be transferred to an entire hotel.
Let there be light: the lamp glass was designed by the artist Paul Hance.Dahahm Choi
The Château Royal is not a simple offshoot of the Grill Royal; it’s its own new house with its own new team. However, the hotel owners include gastro king Stephan Landwehr, who also co-founded the grill, and Moritz Estermann, who used to be the manager of the restaurant and is now the hotel manager. Then there’s Victoria Eliasdóttir, who is reviving her legendary restaurant Dóttir after five years of closure down at the château.
Hardest door in Berlin: on the street corner, guests are greeted by Alicja Kwade’s bronze “Self-Portrait as a Ghost”.Dahahm Choi
The hotel at Mittelstraße 41 is currently being “softly opened”: the building is not yet completely finished, but the first rooms have already been rented out; the big breakfast is still a long time coming, but in the evening in the elegant bar area there are already Eliasdóttir’s shellfish bisque and beef tartare with oyster mayonnaise; a “soft opening” that should convince the concept of a characterful boutique hotel even before the end of the all-round renovation. And indeed, it seems as if the creators of the Château Royal have already done some things right.
In good spirits: Erich Diekmann’s Bauhaus chairs in a new version.Dahahm Choi
It was there that one recognized how style-defining one’s own Berlin identity can be. Nobody here seems to want to make the ever-silly comparison with other metropolises, which is all too often attempted in Berlin. New York cool? Parisian chic? You don’t need it at the Château Royal. Instead, the hotel is geared towards love of its homeland from head to toe – from the weather vane by Berlin artist Cyprien Gaillard, who sits enthroned on the dome tower outside, to the dark mastic asphalt in the hotel corridors, popularly known as “Berliner Terrazzo”.
Escape to the front: The enfilade offers a view of the elegant bar area through the restaurant rooms.Dahahm Choi
In general, the most influential epochs for Berlin’s self-image should determine the design of the hotel: Château’s creative director Celia Solf and her interior designer Irina Kromayer have focused on the city’s early days, the mid-19th century, but also the 1920s. This fits in with the three-part building ensemble of the hotel, which consists of two listed buildings – one built in 1850, the other in 1910 – and a new building and roof structure designed by David Chipperfield.
The Berlin style extends to the last crack in the bed
Inside, the Berlin theme really extends to the last crack in the bed. Colorful glazed tiles are reminiscent of the city’s historic underground stations, the chimney shines in the famous “Schinkel blue”, colorful Dallglas elements in the lobby and bar could be taken from a Charlottenburg bel etage. In any case, in the château you sometimes feel more like you are in an old West Berlin apartment than in a newly opened boutique hotel – “homey” would probably be too much to say, but “inviting” is the best.
Room 211: Marianna Simnett’s watercolor scene “The Courtship”.Dahahm Choi
However, Solf and Kromayer didn’t even touch furniture catalogues: essentially, the hotel furniture was specially designed and manufactured for the château, to a large extent by Berlin companies, of course. The ceiling lamps in the rooms, for example, correspond to the style of the architect Josef Hoffmann, who co-founded the Wiener Werkstätten, but were made by a Kreuzberg lighting manufacturer; the tea trays come from New Tendency in Mitte.
But still cheating: the hotel is all over Berlin, while Irina Kromayer’s bed design is adorned with Viennese mesh.Dahahm Choi
They are available in the guest rooms, which can be booked in six different categories from a manageable 19 square meters to a spacious apartment, on oak fittings. These, in turn, frame the entrance areas and bathrooms and are intended to be reminiscent of the built-in cupboards and chambers of the classic old Berlin building. Together with the beds designed by Irina Kromayer – turn-of-the-century style, headboard with Viennese wickerwork – and the mohair upholstered furniture in deep tones, they are intended to tie together the hotel’s guest rooms in terms of design.
Material battle: Blue craquelé tiles contrast with red marble.Dahahm Choi
Because otherwise it is the versatile art that already dominates the grill, now also the château: Each of the 93 rooms was designed by a different artist, sometimes with specially created art, including not only, but also many Berliners Donut. In number 211, for example, a large-format underwater scene by Marianna Simnett hangs on the wall. The seahorse on one side of the diptych overcomes the edge of the picture and the frame, leans towards the other painting for a kiss, towards a second seahorse.
Beletage, Baby: Oak fittings are reminiscent of the built-in cupboards of classic West Berlin buildings.Dahahm Choi
The selection of art in the Château Royal, for which designer Kirsten Landwehr was responsible as artistic director and art critic Krist Gruijthuijsen acted in an advisory capacity, also leaves room for humorous moments. In a guest room, a foldable pop art cardboard chair by Simon Denny stands between the chic upholstered furniture, while another hangs on the wall. And in 207 it is made credible that the work of art is currently missing: there is just a small card on a marble shelf attached to the wall. “Temporarily removed” is written on it, as if you were in the classic museum business here, “temporarily removed”, a work by the Berlin sculptor Anna Blessmann and the graphic designer Peter Saville.
And then there’s Alicja Kwade’s ‘Self-Portrait as a Ghost’, a sculpture that stands in front of the hotel on the corner of the street. The artist is not recognizable as herself, as she is covered by the tight folds of a bronze cloth. She stands on the asphalt like an indestructible ghost and greets the guests, who will soon emerge as a typical Berlin mix.
Because if you’re not a guest in the hotel bed, you’re just having fun as a local at the bar, in the restaurant or in the fireplace room. The hotel is consciously aimed at guests and Berliners alike. So if you go to the Château Royal on Fridays, you will be able to learn a lot about our city.
Château Royal at Mittelstrasse 41 in Mitte. There are six different room categories that can be booked through the hotel’s website, with prices starting at 195 euros per night. The Dóttir restaurant is currently open from Thursday to Saturday from 6 p.m.