I forgot my camera when we went to Liebling, but that seems fitting, for Liebling has neither a website nor a card nor a menu printed or chalked nor hardly even a name. 'Liebling' is nowhere to be found without or within except for scribbled across the magazines they keep for their visitors, to discourage pilfering. I think of these as the quiet days, before the place has a name, and we refer to it as the old artists' supply shop (which it was) next to the old Negativeland (whose space Goldhahn & Sampson now occupy).

Of course Liebling is more than an assemblage of absences. Walking in you see the customary extravagent use of lillies, white-on-white avian wall decals, a finely-tiled white barfront, furnishings in white, wood and silvery sage, excellent lighting fixtures (oval cameos of milky light) and everyone there that night was dressed neatly, wore glasses, and looked serious, except for the barman, who was unbespectacled, relaxed and kind. The most surprising element in the place was its "Plat du jour": Grünkohleintopf mit Knacker, a hearty portion of curly kale cooked with onions, bacon bits, potatoes, and pickled pork, and served with a sausage.

Liebling, corner of Raumerstraße and Dunckerstraße (map)
Open daily from 10 or 11 on