The story
Almost fifty yearsbehind the same gate
In 1977 Kreuzberg was a different city, and this courtyard was just a courtyard. Then somebody put tables under the trees.
1977
The first table in the courtyard
Osteria N.1 opens at Kreuzbergstraße 71, in a district that was then the edge of a divided city. Real Italian cooking in a Berlin that barely knew it yet.
The 1980s
The courtyard becomes a meeting place
Artists, actors, musicians and neighbours start treating the Hof as a second living room. Summer evenings stretch out, tables get added, the trees grow.
1990s – 2000s
The gardens appear
First the summer garden, then the winter garden: the courtyard can be used almost all year. The osteria stops being a June-to-August thing.
Today
The same rules
The hands in the kitchen change and so do the faces at the tables, but the way of working hasn't: buy fresh, cook the same day, eat without hurrying. And the gate is still the same gate.
“We never wanted to be the most elegant Italian restaurant in Berlin. We wanted to be the one you come back to.”
The courtyard, over the years
Photographs taken by guests on perfectly ordinary evenings. They aren't polished — that's the point.
