“PASTIS”: Back to the roots of French cuisine

After months of hea­vy reno­va­tions, a small French revo­lu­ti­on is hap­pe­ning in Wed­ding: A new restau­rant has arri­ved, and its name, PASTIS, is not the only thing that refers to the art of living on France. “We want to go back to the good, simp­le recipes”, says Vin­cent Gar­cia. The 47-year old chef, who was born in Mar­seil­le, belie­ves that the hau­te cui­sine has got­ten too far away from the roots of the French art of coo­king. The menu at PASTIS, howe­ver, is based around the dis­hes you can find in a tra­di­tio­nal Bistro.

Simp­le and clas­si­cal –yes, but still influen­ced by exo­tic tas­tes from Afri­ca and Asia. “Some peo­p­le will accept lon­ger ways for that”, Marie Bézi­an belie­ves. The 28-year old Ger­man-French citi­zen grew up in Sou­thern France, fed on her grandmother’s recipes. Marie will run the Wed­ding branch of PASTIS. “We live ‘the Esprit Bras­se­rie’, no fuss, not­hing more com­pli­ca­ted than neces­sa­ry.” Even if you’re not fami­li­ar with the French kit­chen, PASTIS wants to offer some­thing for you. “Food is fun”, Vin­cent says. The most authen­tic way to enjoy our wes­tern neighbour’s food are stan­dard offers such as Bou­din, frog legs, tar­te flam­bées, bouil­la­baisse, and real French baguette. The typi­cal recipes and ingre­di­ents, and in addi­ti­on good wine and home­ma­de bread and pastry, want to con­tri­bu­te to making PASTIS one of the bea­cons of the French way of cooking.

Touche française in Wedding

Food which is repre­sen­ting France goes well with the for­mer allied cul­tu­re cen­ter. The com­plex from 1961 is curr­ent­ly under­go­ing a lot of chan­ges. Mana­ger Flo­ri­an Fang­man explains: “The hotel, many semi­nars, the City Kino and the new restau­rant – many things here work well tog­e­ther”. Vin­cent Gar­cia also hopes that his guests can feel that ever­yo­ne is pul­ling in the same direc­tion. Vin­cent has been suc­cessful at estab­li­shing his restau­rant con­cept for years in his restau­rant in Wil­mers­dorf. Now he wants to bring it to Mül­lerstra­ße 47. With a young team, which is part­ly from Wed­ding, the Cent­re Fran­çais and Oli­vi­er Bour­dais as a part­ner the ambi­tious pro­ject could beco­me a bea­con for North-Ber­lin. “Qua­li­ty will attract peo­p­le”, decla­res Marie.”Even if it is a bit of an adven­ture at first“.

The for­mer exhi­bi­ti­on space is spa­cious and deco­ra­ted in warm colours. 80 peo­p­le can be sea­ted or find space at small bis­tro tables. In addi­ti­on, there’s a bar which – of cour­se – offers the anis­eed liqu­or Pas­tis. The big ent­rance area of the 60’ies buil­ding is pure nost­al­gia, and during the sum­mer, a big out­side area will offer an addi­tio­nal 60 seats. The kit­chen will be open from mid­day through to din­ner time – for lunch, cof­fee and cake, or for a drink after the cine­ma. A cheap and high-qua­li­ty three-cour­se lunch menu, a dai­ly Brunch offer and home-made Pâtis­se­rie – uni­que sel­ling points for the nor­t­hern end of Müllerstraße.

Trans­la­ti­on: Danie­la Hombach

Kit­chen: open until 10pm, open from 6am, break­fast until 10am
PASTIS at the Cent­re Français
Bras­se­rie, Café and Restaurant
Mül­lerstra­ße 74
13349 Ber­lin-Wed­ding, U Rehberge
030–45025001 for bookings

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