Berlin Coffee Culture: Where to Actually Work and Drink Well

Berlin has a complicated relationship with coffee. For years the city was famous for its indifference to it — a place where a Milchkaffee in a Kneipe was sufficient, where the serious coffee culture was considered a distraction from the serious beer culture. That has changed considerably.

The current scene

There are now specialty coffee roasters and cafes spread across Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, and Neukölln that would hold their own against Amsterdam or London equivalents. The difference is that Berlin’s cafe culture developed alongside a strong laptop-working culture — the city has an enormous freelance and creative class, and the cafes accommodate this in a way that Parisian or Italian cafes traditionally do not.

Bonanza Coffee at Oderberger Straße 35 in Prenzlauer Berg is the anchor of the scene — they roast their own beans, the espresso is excellent, and the space is designed for actual use rather than aesthetics. Common Ground in Kreuzberg is smaller, more neighbourhood-facing, good filter coffee and a genuinely relaxed atmosphere. Both are worth your time.

Working from cafes

Berlin is extremely laptop-friendly. Most cafes have Wi-Fi and don’t time you out after one coffee. The understanding is that you will buy a second drink if you stay more than two hours, which you generally should. Nobody will ask you to leave. This is not a Paris situation.

The Kaffee und Kuchen tradition

The older German afternoon coffee ritual — coffee and cake, usually between 3 and 5pm — survives in the neighbourhood cafes and the bakeries. A slice of Bienenstich or Pflaumenkuchen with a filter coffee at a corner bakery costs €5–6 and is one of the more satisfying things you can do on a weekday afternoon. The bakeries in Prenzlauer Berg and Charlottenburg do this better than the specialty coffee shops.