Westberlin on Friedrichstraße in Mitte occupies the narrow overlap between a specialty coffee shop and an editorial magazine archive: the shelves carry a carefully curated selection of independent print publications from across Europe and the Americas, running alongside a coffee programme that treats the cup with the same attention the curation gives the publications. The name is a direct reference to the divided city, though the shop operates without nostalgia — the reference is geographical, not political. The design is restrained and calibrated for the kind of morning that prefers reading to conversation. Friedrichstraße has been subject to considerable commercial pressure since reunification; Westberlin is one of the operations that has retained an identity through it.
Mitte, Berlin, Germany