The Dead Rooster Dinner, Sat 25 February 2012

I would simply like to announce that this month's dinner is going to be at an extremely curious but honest restaurant. That is what I call a joint that insists on serving a French-German menu at a ridiculous 18 Euro for 4 courses, and then having the temerity to call themselves after their main ingredient, which is basically freshly deceased chickens. Der Hahn ist tot! is a blunt name for an establishment for sure but also a little silly - still, one can do with a little chuckle and a dash of frivolity during these dark days of tense (but probably pointless) Greek budget negotiations. But that's likely just me being acerbic again.

So this month's dinner will probably involve chicken in some form or another - I cannot say as the restaurant's website (http://der-hahn-ist-tot.de) does not show their menu but it does confirm that 4 courses will be served for the paltry sum of only 18 Euro, excluding drinks. The address is Zionskirchstraße 40, 10119 Berlin Mitte and I expect a good-ish crowd for this event as it must be one of the best must-try dining deals in Berlin at the moment, even in this weather. Actually, I think some of you will come just to see what a restaurant called The Cock Is Dead (in English) would look like. Well, at least I would, if I am in Berlin, but then I always had a shallow personality and an odd sense of humour. At least that is what my mother would tell me if she herself had a sense of humour. However, that is not to say that YOU have a shallow personality with a weird sense of humour too if you want to come but, well, it may help. :o)

Anyway, I digress. The point of this email is simply that you should send an email as soon as possible to sylvia@berlindinnerclub.com if you wish to book a place for the dinner on 25 February. If there are too many bookings, then we will utilise the electronic hat to select the lucky ones that get to attend - it can be a harsh world sometimes, you know, but we do hope the hat won't be necessary. Closing date for bookings is Thurs 16 Feb and all those who make it will be informed by Mon 20 Feb.

Written on behalf of Sylvia

How it went on the night...

As usual we meet before dinner at a bar and we were jammed so tight together that we hardly fitted in the corner. This was just a prelude and a test to see how good we can all get along with each other as in the restaurant we were also squeezed together at two tiny little tables. It seems that this is a "let's squeeze along together" night.

The restaurant was fully packed, and really very loud and so it was hard to understand each other or to extract ourselves out to reach other necessary places, like the loos. This was about the only downside of the night as the food was excellent for the price paid. As we were so congested that we had the advantage of the starters (soup or quiche) being served to us at the table as normally people have to pick it up for themselves. The second course was a green salad with pears and pomegranate which came in a big bowl in the centre of the table and everybody could make their own dressing (actually, there was only one dressing available but one can have as much or as little as they liked of this one single dressing). For the main course most of us ordered either the "famous" Coq qu Vin, Zander (pike) or Boeff (beef) and everyone said that their dishes were very well cooked. The dessert doesn't look too nice on the picture (in fact, it looks like a lump of goo) but it really tasted considerably better than it looked (fortunately). All this was accompanied by a few nice bottles of Bordeaux wines.

I have to report that a small crowd of us still felt rather thirsty after the dinner and we moseyed over to a winery close by where you can sample various wines by donating the amount of money you think your drinks are worth. So overall, another pretty good DC night out.