David Bowie’s favourite location in the 70’s – Hotel Ellington / Berlin / Germany

Categories Destinations, Hotels, Houses, Stories6 Comments

Contributed by Jens Hoffmann.

Today we features this nice, historical hotel in the western part of booming Berlin.
It is where Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington played in the legendary “Badewanne” club, where David Bowie, Romy Haag and Lou Reed celebrated, where heroes of the Ufa film studios – and later german TV stars as Günter “Pfitze” Pfitzmann and Edith Hancke – stood on the stage of the “Berliner Theater”; the building remodelled as the Ellington Hotel has a long, distinguished tradition.

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The hotel created within historical walls and the hotel moved into a renowned address, which is also famous for design and architecture. “Haus Nürnberg”, as it was originally called, is decorated with one of the longest, most eye-catching and perhaps one of the most attractive façades in Berlin. The building entrances and the shop front windows have brass frames – which also contributes to the smart outer appearance of this commercial building, which was built in 1928-31 under the influence of the trailblazing buildings of the Berlin architect Erich Mendelsohn. Inside the building the entrance halls, staircases and several rooms and halls have retained the charm of the late nineteen-twenties and early thirties. A “fantastic capital attraction” is what the “Deutsche Bauhütte” magazine called the “Femina-Palast” ballroom in 1932, which it presented to German architects as the “newest entertainment venue in Berlin”.
The “Femina” was officially opened on 1 October 1929: “Berlin’s Ballroom” is the self-assured subhead on the posters advertising a seating capacity for 2,000 people, “two enormous bars and three bands”, “daily tea dance”, “cover charge 2.50” and “dance attractions”.

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House & Hotel Magazine checked in on top floor and it is worth it to stay here.

Ellington Hotel

Unfortunately my favourite restaurant in Berlin-Mitte closed: It was the Margaux – Chef de Cuisine – Michael Hoffmann
New resto tip in the hotel: LABANCA, a bit of “stylish bella Italia” in Berlin-City.

The new restaurant by Chef de Cuisine Jörg Behrend is located in the groundfloor of Hotel de Rome. The dining room is just cool. Tables are generously spaced, set with good quality linen tablecloths. The kitchen is well staffed. We tried during the opening the whole menu, eight small courses of tasting menus, including vitello tonnato, Watermelon with thunfish, caprese, Gnocci with Parma ham, Saltimbocc with spinacah, seebass. Everything was perfect, most of the vegetables on the menu came from local gardens.
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The wine list has coverages from France, Germany, Italy and Spain in particular, with some rare wines as well. We tried Chardonnay by Alois Lageder South-Tyrol and a lovely Riesling from Anthony Hammond, Rheingau.
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This worked well with the food, the textural contrast of the different kind of foods was delicious effective and everything tasted very fresh.

The food was attractively presented and also the Barbecue meat had a pleasant meaty taste, but the itself had a slight chewiness of texture, which I was not expecting.

The vegetables had excellent flavour.

The seabass with artichokes, was an unusual dish, tasty and well balanced.

Dessert came in three stages. Classic Pannacotta, Tirami Su and a lovely chocolate bar.

This is a restaurant that can produce genuinely top class dishes, and the control of balancing flavors was impressive. Yummy.

I am in love with LABANCA, even Sir Rocco Forte (with his daughters) joined the opening.

FB – House & Hotel Magazine

Living in style.

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