Archives for “Bars” tag

I associate very special or at least just beautiful-days-without-a-special-cause with the Atlantik Fisch. Atlantik Fisch is a shop with diner located in the Große Elbstraße directly at the harbor. And guess what you get there: everything the ocean has to give. From oysters, gambas, crabs to diverse shells and fishes – you will find everything.

I always go there on Christmas eve about noon to buy Irish oysters for my family and me and then I get a glass of white wine or champagne and have some oysters already for lunch. The interior is very simple and pragmatic, you sit on wooden benches between this great selection of sea-fruits and look at the flurry of activity.

We go there as well in summer times to have oysters, white wine and baguette, sitting in the sun and enjoying our lifes. Sad to say, that’s not our everyday program, it’s rather reserved for some special days.

Go there if you like high quality seafood or need something really special, you will find it here. Or just enjoy the harbor atmosphere and have a salmon sandwich – as you like.

Erika’s Eck is a place for taxi drivers and all kinds of stranded people to have a coffee and a lusty snack at night. It is a very colorful mix of party people and people who finished their shift. The food is the best antidote for an upcoming hangover.

It’s good and simple German food. They sell sandwiches with roast pork, tartar or salmon. If this is not enough you can order a “Wiener Schnitzel”. Drink your last beer and enjoy this original atmosphere. Don’t go there before midnight, because that’s when they start selling their sandwiches.

If we are too tired to stay there we take our sandwiches to go and eat them at home. Believe me, you’ll feel better the next morning.

Café Panter is definitely my favorite café in the Marktstraße. It is a very relaxed place with good music and friendly service. 

You need to order at the bar where you get all usual coffee specialties and some snacks like salads, pasta, sandwiches or cake. Their food is not cheap but they use only organic ingredients. I once had a very tasty tomato-buffalo-mozzarella-salad with basil. Their pasta is simple and good as well. I warmly recommend you try their chocolate-brownies. They are so delicious, tasty, juicy! You’ve gotta try them if you like chocolate as much as I do.

We often go there for a coffee during day times or for an aperitive in the early evening as they are not open that long in the evening. Thus it is perfect for a break from your shopping tour through the Marktstraße.

You should go to the Oberhafenkantine by foot because the walk is beautiful: You start at the Deichtorhallen (see article Deichtorhallen), walk over the Oberhafenbrücke and at the bridges’ end it is on the left side. The Oberhafenkantine is a very special place with a long history. And it looks very special, because of many storm tides and undercutting it is so crooked that I sometimes feel a bit queasy when I walk in! 

Since its opening in 1925 it was a place for dockworkers who got their coffee and their burger there. When landlady Anita died in 1997 (she worked there from 1925 to 1997!) the Oberhafenkantine was closed and then restored and reopened in 2006. It is a lovely place where you can enjoy some regional specialties. Everything is fresh and handmade. And in summer it is perfect when you sit outside next to the water and have some drinks. Next to the Oberhafenkantine is the Zollamt-Oberhafen a small off-gallery for contemporary art.  

By the way: The Oberhafenkantine marks the starting point of the Oberhafencity which is a huge area with epic free space and old warehouses directly at the Elbe. It is expected to develop within the next decades and is the antipole to the Hafencity. 

Since we did our last project in Hamburgs Hafencity we were more or less forced to hang around there. Locals are really sceptical towards the Hafencity, because it is an very fast growing and expensive area, dozens of new buildings and quays were built within the last years. The Hafencity is blamed to be a very clean and cold place, with no heart and no life in it. Frankly spoken – it needs to grow, it needs people who live there, cafés, bars and more shops. But if you embark on this area, it is amazing – at least that is what I feel. 

The place I love most there is Heimat Küche und Bar. It is the gastronomic part of the Designhotel 25hours. They offer breakfast, lunch and dinner, often with DJ’s. And since it is one of few bars there it is often really crowded.

The food is based on local ingredients and simple but really good. Try fish’n chips, that’s awesome. The interior is inspired by the world of shipping, harbour and Hamburgs warehouse district in combination with some design classics. I would be happy to have their chairs round my dinner table.