Sorrel and Two Trick Pony: Berlin's brunch saviours

Cured salmon, potato, horseradish and egg at Neukölln breakfast spot Sorrel. Photo: instagram/sorrel

You don’t have to splurge on caviar at Frühstück 3000 to have a blowout morning meal. Brought to us by the caffeinated Aussies behind Friedrichshain’s Silo, SORREL combines the expected killer coffee (from Silo-associated roastery Fjord) with brunch dishes that go above and beyond avo toast, like a towering croque madame with ham or spinach, cured salmon with melon and pickled mustard seeds or French toast with caramelised figs. In addition to breakfast and lunch, there’s dinner and drinks on weekends (natural wine? Natürlich) and a house-baked cardamom bun that’s good just about anytime.

But our favourite AM new(ish)comer, along with everyone else’s, has got to be TWO TRICK PONY. True to its name, the British-Irish-South African café survived corona by pulling off a double act. Bergmannkiez first got to know owners Jason Starmer and Gary Young through their takeout window, where they sold portable comfort food like pies, meat and veggie sausage rolls and terrifically moist cakes; when sit-down service resumed, they switched to their original concept of big, bold brunch dishes: scrambled eggs and fermented chilli oil, grilled cheese with pickled pineapple, a hearty full English complete with Sausage Man back bacon. Through it all, their relentless niceness kept regulars coming back for more, even when word of the place spread far beyond Kreuzberg.

Sorrel Pannierstr. 40, Neukölln, Mon, Wed, Sat, Sun 10-17, Thu-Fri 10-23

Two Trick Pony Bergmannstr. 52, Kreuzberg, Wed-Sun 10-16, (Kitchen 10-15:30)