Nachtasyl is the bar inside the Thalia Theater — which is to say it is the bar of Hamburg's most important literary theater, operating in the space behind the stage in a room of amber light and dark wood that belongs equally to the city's theater life and its late-night conversation culture. The name is Gorky, the address is Alstertor, and the atmosphere is consistent with both: conversations that begin after the curtain and continue until the bar closes. The clientele is the theater crowd plus the neighbourhood — an overlap that makes the room interesting. There are readings on certain evenings and no readings on others; in either case the amber interior is reason enough to arrive. Hamburg has developed a literary bar culture in the last decade that rivals any northern European city, and Nachtasyl is its oldest and most considered example.
Innenstadt, Hamburg, Germany