Walking around the area surrounding our hotel would give you the impression that Germany has conquered Italy, enslaved all of the Italian restaurateurs, and carted them off to Berlin to work in Italian eateries. There are at least ten such places within walking distance of our digs, and we are having dinner tonight at Ristorante Mario for the second time in four nights. This is probably not a bad idea because at our next stop, Munich, we expect beer and sausages to be on the menu everywhere. Last night, however, we ate a Restaurant Marjellchen which specializes in dishes originating in East Prussia.
We're sure that it was one of the owners who greeted us, explained the menu, took our order, recommended a nice wine made from Pinot Noir, and walked us to the door to say goodbye at the end of the evening. The portions were large; the owner discouraged Cindy from ordering another side dish, and both of us could have shared our dinner with at least one other person.
While the other two restaurants where we've had dinner were hives of activity and packed with patrons, here there were only two rooms with six tables each, and two of those in the room where we dined were empty. Dark wainscoting covers the bottom half of the walls, and dark still life paintings of dead animals and fruit adorn the upper half. We enjoyed a serene candlelight dinner, and then strolled back to the hotel in a vain attempt to walk off some of those heavy-duty Prussian calories we'd just ingested.
