Deutsches Restaurant Ausspanne

Berlin Pub on Kastanienallee

Kastanienallee is considered the oldest street in Prenzlauer Berg, even though house numbers 37 to 69, and thus Ausspanne, already belong to Mitte. Landowner Wilhelm Griebenow laid it out in 1826 as an extension of Weinbergsweg, naming it after the horse chestnuts he had planted. Today, the street is 950 meters long, runs from Eberswalder Straße to Fehrbelliner Straße, and is divided into two halves by Schwedter Straße. After 1990, almost all houses were renovated, war gaps were closed, and at the end of the 1990s, chestnuts were replanted along its entire length. Because designer shops and a fashion-conscious public gathered here, locals mockingly call the street ‘Castingallee’. Within walking distance are the Berliner Prater beer garden, the Lichtblick art house cinema, the Hirschhof as a former center of alternative culture, the Zionskirche, and a mosaic by Manfred Butzmann commemorating the film pioneers Skladanowsky. The street owes part of its current fame to the nightlife and galleries that settled here after the fall of the Wall; however, rising rents have displaced many of the old residents.

From Teamster’s Inn to Modern German Cuisine

The name is explained by its history in transport: an ‘Ausspanne’ was an inn on old trade routes where travelers stayed overnight and their horses were unharnessed. Today, the restaurant is part of the owner-managed Hotel Kastanienhof, a 19th-century Berlin residential building that was converted into a hotel with 44 rooms in the 1990s; the Hauptmann family has been at home on Kastanienallee since 1922. Ausspanne is furnished like a traditional Old Berlin pub, with antique photographs, souvenirs from Berlin breweries, original tin signs, and a over hundred-year-old barrel organ on the upper floor. There is also a gourmet lounge and a terrace. Modern German cuisine is cooked with regional products and without preservatives, and the menu changes approximately every six weeks. Head chef Tom Dörpinghaus reinterprets the classics: Berlin calf’s liver for 23 Euros, Königsberger Klopse, veal Wiener Schnitzel, and pike-perch fillet. The house specialty is called Tom’s Special and consists of Käsespätzle with mushroom ragout for 16 Euros; also meat-free are the tomato soup with ouzo and baked capers, and bread dumplings on mushroom ragout.