Other savory plates include mustard eggs and lentil soup, which do well following a portion of Handkäs—a pickled cheese dish that comes from Alken’s hometown. (Many Germans will understand the side of ‘musik’ written on the menu as an obvious in-joke.) “You can’t call it German soul food because that’s not really a thing, but it’s hearty, traditional food made from ingredients that have been around for a very long time,” explains Alken. Roesch adds: “When you look at the progression of restaurants and food over the last 30 years, so much has changed or been industrialized, and these sorts of meals were leveled down in a way. So we wanted to go back to our origins, and cook the types of meals we knew and loved growing up.”
Where Roesch is from, there is a strong connection to the countryside. “There are many guesthouses serving cuisine that’s like plates of grown-up comfort,” he says. “There’s a certain liveliness to these places, bordering on brutality,” he laughs, “where they get rowdier and rowdier with time.” With a nod to the jovial ‘old-timey’ restaurants they have frequented so many times, the trio hopes that their venue will emulate this energy in its own way. “It’s something you cannot replicate, but it was important for us to have an energetic space that looks to the spirit of those places,” says Alken.