There’s something quite disconcerting about
a friendly neighbourhood joint becoming a tourist destination. Great for the
joint, no doubt, but for those who live locally, it’s a confusing experience.
Not only do you suddenly have to queue (or worse, pay entry), you also
invariably end up feeling bad. Bad for envying others what you ‘discovered’ all
on your own, no tourist guide or hipster blog needed. Bad for having to pay
much more for the same thing. Bad for not seeing the bright side for the lucky
vendor(s) who find themselves the centre of attention. Bad for cursing the
American accents of the American staff serving the American tourists and nobody
speaking German any more. If you’re even a tad of a sauer person (wonderful German word, sauer), the whole thing leaves you with a nasty taste in your
mouth.
Food location wise, this happened to me
with ever increasingly popular Klunkerkranich. (Can it get more popular? Yes,
it can.) It has all the sauer-making
essentials: queuing, price hikes, tourists, entrance fees.
It also happened with the Markthalle Neun. I
remember (I indeed am that old) when the hall was empty and no one wanted to
shop there, not even at the Aldi. There were plans to spruce it up, to hold events,
to bring the Markthallen of Berlin back into fashion. I was a faithful visitor
of those first events, from breakfast get-togethers to handmade supermarkets. I
loved the arches to sit under, the kids’ play area, the slightly mucky toilets
in one corner and the hippy dippy people trying to sell their soups made of
wonky carrots, once a week.
But now, visiting when there’s an event on
(they do recurring ‘events’ which are then by definition no longer events, I
suppose) you can’t get in the door, you can’t get a table, or food that’s
actually hot, or find your friends in the throng of it all. Say goodbye for
five minutes while one person joins the wait for an overpriced raclette while
the others nip into Aldi for a cheap prawn sandwich, and you’ve said goodbye
for the rest of the night.
So I’ve tried a different tack. I’ve gone
during weekday lunch hours. Hey presto! It was like stepping back in time, only
with cleaner toilets. There were seats for everyone. It was quiet and lovely,
just like it used to be. OK, so half the stands were closed, waiting for the
hordes of tourists on Streetfood Thursday, but there was more than enough
choice for everyone.
Prices were steep though, for Berlin
standards at least. The onsite bakery’s 100% spelt breads sold for nearly €13 a pop.
We almost lost our appetite and as an act of recalcitrance went for the Aldi
prawn sandwich. Feeling bad (see, there it is again) we then bought some good
coffee from the Café (€2,60 for a cappuccino), a super tasty albeit greasy
olive focaccia (€2,50) and an organic bretzel (€1,30) that was generous but a
wee bit dried out. The American workers were there (you can just hear them
bragging to their homey friends: So yeah, I work in this, like, amaaazing food
hall in the middle of Berlin…). But other than that, the locals had their
neighbourhood joint back. For an hour or two at least.
Markthalle Neun lunch menu, 12-6pm, Mon-Thu, website
