Only just opened, and already closed again. Or: Jumped through hoops to get Covid-19 compliant – and then impacted by the lockdown anyway. That has hit many restaurant operators hard. Now what? Bury their heads in the sand? Not these restaurateurs. Part 1 of 2.
The 2 movers and shakers behind Berlin’s Barkin’Kitchen have also reinvented themselves more than once. From the get-go, their restaurant covered a broad spectrum and the pace was brisk: individual catered events and supper clubs with fellow chefs alternated with sophisticated lunchtime interpretations of German home cooking. DIY boxes followed toward the end of the Covid-19 closure, as did pop-up dinners at a club during the summer. Early August marked the launch of a takeaway option at their own location that is fairly unique in Berlin: Freddy Fey’s Fish & Fries. The concept of gourmet, hand-crafted fish and chips was born of the crisis. As the situation went on, the lunch crowd from the surrounding offices stayed persistently away. Battered, deep-fried fish and hand-cut chips, British street-food-style, dished out on the patio in the evenings for walk-in customers and fuelled by a small-scale online campaign, offered a better perspective.
What can the industry sector do to survive the second wave of Covid-19 and the current lockdown – and perhaps others that may be ahead?
Co-owners Frederik Jagla and chef Christian Fey, both seasoned pros who trained in top-calibre kitchens and lent the operation their names, brought the concept to life. The upside: fish and chips is an easy dish to plan, pass over the counter as takeaway and send out with a delivery service. So the repeat lockdown did not take Barkin’Kitchen unawares: ‘Business was good, and it still is,’ says managing director and co-owner No. 3, Antonio Rilling. ‘We’re still open Thursday through Sunday, and we may even add Wednesday soon, too.’
Barkin’Kitchen’s second location, however, is currently closed again. The outpost at C/O Berlin near Zoo Station depends on the gallery visitors, Rilling says. It opened again in September, but with a staff of just 2 people and only as a self-service operation. Even with all this flexibility and capacity for reinvention, caution is still the watchword of the day. Catered events for groups of all sizes, a key line of business, had largely dried up. ‘We’re glad that we’re not a huge company with 100 people,’ Rilling says. The ‘C-suite’, all of whom are in their early 30s, roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. Alongside all the creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, that’s important: ‘We’re still fairly young. So we have an easier time coming up with crazy ideas and just giving them a shot.’
Daring to do more, not less: Part 2.
Header picture: © White Kitchen.