Zur letzten Instanz

Zur letzten Instanz on Waisenstraße in Mitte (just east of the Nikolaiviertel) has run as a Gaststätte continuously since 1621, making it Berlin's oldest continuous pub. The room reads like a museum to the format — low ceilings, wood panelling, the famous list of visitors (Napoleon, Bismarck, Heinrich Zille, Beethoven, John F. Kennedy, Mikhail Gorbachev — the wall plaque is the room's autobiographical statement) — and the kitchen runs the classic Berliner Wirtshaus menu: Eisbein, Schweinshaxe, Königsberger Klopse, the dishes the audience wants for the once-on-the-trip Old-Berlin meal. The kitchen is honest rather than fine; the room is the meal.