Berlin's oldest rooms are mostly younger than they say, and the reason is usually written down: this city was flattened, then rebuilt, and in one case rebuilt on purpose as a tourist attraction. Five of them, from a beer garden in a courtyard to a bar with no menu where the man behind it decides what you are having.
- 1 · The Cold Open
Prater Garten
Our 1837 is not in the monument register, which dates the site from 1856, and it is not on the operator's own pages either: they claim no founding year at all, only that this is the oldest and finest beer garden in Berlin. The national heritage foundation hedges to about 1830 and says one of the oldest. So take it as very old and undated. The garden is in the courtyard, self service, no bookings, and it opens only in decent weather. On a wet afternoon it is shut and the indoor room does not open until five, which catches people out.
the register says 1856, the house names no year at all · garden in fine weather, indoor room from 5pm · verified Aug 2026
- 2 · The Detour
Zur letzten Instanz
The 1621 was a spirits counter in a tenement, and the name only attached in 1924. What happened next is the part nobody prints. The bombs did not finish this building; the East German authorities did. The city judged it repairable, then resolved in November 1961 to take it down to the foundations and rebuild it as a state-run tourist attraction, reopening in 1963. The monument register says the fabric was almost entirely replaced. The rococo staircase was carried in from another street and the city wall in the dining room is an imitation. Napoleon is folklore. Chirac really did come, three times. Königsberger Klopse and a Riesling, and the old legal puns are off the card.
a spirits counter from 1621, this building rebuilt 1961 to 1963 · lunch and dinner, check the weekly card · verified Aug 2026
- 3 · The Anchor
Clärchens Ballhaus
Clärchen was Clara, and the state says so rather than the house: the monument register names Clara Bühler and Clara Habermann as the builders in 1890. The ballroom people write about is not the one now trading. The ground floor dance floor is a restaurant called Luna D'Oro, and the dancing moved upstairs into the Spiegelsaal, the mirror room, which the operator has deliberately left unrestored. You can get up there three ways: dance classes on weeknights, Sunday concerts, or a guided talk on Sunday afternoons for fifteen euros, booked ahead.
the building 1890, the ballroom 1913, this operator since 2024 · restaurant from 5pm, garden earlier in fine weather · verified Aug 2026
dance classes on weeknights and concerts on Sundays, upstairs in the unrestored Spiegelsaal
- 4 · The Wildcard
E. & M. Leydicke
E and M are Emil and Max, which the monument register confirms because they built the place. And their own frontage is more careful than we were: it says family founded 1877, not established 1877, because 1877 is the liqueur and fruit wine firm and this room and its cellars are 1892. The register notes the still and the press are still down there, along with the original marble floor and wooden shelves. Fourth generation now. Erdbeerwein, the strawberry wine, is the house drink and the raspberry spirit is the second call. No kitchen, no food, and do not believe anyone who tells you they sell mead.
the firm 1877, this room and its cellars 1892 · evenings, ring first in August · verified Aug 2026
- 5 · The Last Call
Rum Trader
Hans August Schröder opened this in April 1976 with the house rule that the guest needs guidance. Gregor Scholl, who most writing still names, took it on in 2001 and left around 2021; Durran Jordan has run it since September 2022. Twenty seats at the outside. There is no menu: you name a spirit and say sweet or sour and he decides. Ask for the Kanzler, made for Helmut Schmidt when he was elected in 1976 and served since his death with a menthol cigarette beside it. Saturdays it now opens in the afternoon, which every listing site still has wrong.
est. April 1976, and on its third owner · Tue-Fri from 8.15pm, Sat 3pm till 9pm · verified Aug 2026