Second Helping

Cafe Berlin

Comments (0) By Jason Sheehan Thursday, Jun 9 2005

New and improved. I can't imagine those two words ever being more appropriate -- in a restaurant context, certainly -- than when applied to Cafe Berlin in its new home downtown. Cafe Berlin's original location on 17th Avenue, although quaintly charming and homey in a care-worn way, was definitely showing its age when I reviewed the place two years ago. The kitchen cooked classics of the Old World, served to a steady stream of regulars -- the staff knew most customers by name -- off a menu that never changed. The accents on the floor were all German, and the popular dishes (kartoffelpuffer, wurstteller, schweine-kotelett and zigeunerschnitzel) Teutonically impossible to pronounce for anyone not already well lubricated by the tap beers and schnapps.

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Cafe Berlin

1600 Champa St., Unit 230
Denver, CO 80202

Category: Restaurant > German

Region: Downtown Denver

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303-377-5896

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None of that has changed at Cafe Berlin's new home, except that now everything is a little brighter and a lot less ponderous. The space is divided into three dining rooms with a bar in the middle, all flooded with sunshine every afternoon, and with German music (mostly crooning, jazz-age stuff) any hour the place is open. The tables -- which were always set with white cloths and linen napkins -- now seem to be in a spot made for such finery. And the food has, if anything, gotten even better.

The waitresses still gently scold diners who don't clean their plates, and -- with characteristic European aplomb -- insist that those who do must still be hungry, so offer desserts, glasses of schnapps, perhaps a little strudel for the road. But I don't think anyone has ever left Cafe Berlin hungry, because every meal here is a feast. Smoked pork chops topped with tender, paper-thin slices of sautéed apple, cabbage rolls drowning in beef gravy, seven different kinds of schnitzel, excellent spaetzle, wonderfully weighty potato pancakes -- just walking by the windows could make you put on a few pounds.

If you were a fan of the old Cafe Berlin but haven't tried this location yet -- or if you've never eaten at either -- hurry over to 14th Street. Cafe Berlin may have learned some new tricks, but it hasn't forgotten a thing about the charms of real, Old World comfort. $$