Kumpel & Keule is a butcher shop in the food destination, Markthalle IX, in Berlin.
The first thing to note is their commitment to quality food production:
Over the past 10 years, more than half of German craft butchers have shut down forever. Meat and sausages have become a junk product that is pale and tasteless, cheaper in some places than dog food. We do not see the whole animal anymore. What happens on the farms remains hidden. The hand that made the sausage or ham remains invisible to us. What’s left is just something else. A piece of meat without origin and history.
TIME TO CHANGE – LONG LIVE THE HONORABLE CRAFTS!
We at Kumpel & Keule want to change these conditions and bring back the honest enjoyment. It is about nothing less than giving back the dignity to the flesh and the craft. Kumpel & Keule stands for a new, young generation of butchers who are passionate and convinced in their search for total quality from the field to the plate . The focus of Kumpel & Keule’s work is on transparency, craftsmanship, the origin of the meat and above all the taste. It is about a pleasurable balance of old proven traditions and new international flavors.
On Saturdays, at Street Food Thursday, and at their nearby restaurant, Spiesewirtschaft, K&K serve the best hamburger I have ever eaten.
The word that comes to me for this burger is tenderness. Each element contributes a delicate flavor, nothing is robust.
The meat is meltingly soft, as is the bun, from Markthalle IX Italian bakers, Sironi. The salad is a gentle mache lettuce (called “feldsalat” in Germany), the cheese is German deichkase, the bacon is perfect. Sometimes there’s too much “special sauce”, but even it is so refined that I do not forego it.
Restaurantkritik review Kumpel & Keule / Spiesewirtschaft, Burger Berlin