Review: Chateau Royal Berlin

If you listened to the naysayers, you’d believe that Berlin was rather boring these days. “Berghain is so vanilla,” they say. “All the artists are moving out.” Well, here’s a hotel that proves otherwise. Several of the city’s artists hang out within these walls – one or two, perhaps, sitting with an Oyster Eau Martini to hand at the bar – and many more have been involved in designing bedrooms or displaying pieces up stairs and down corridors. A bronze self-portrait by Alicja Kwade stands outside, Karl Holmqvist’s neon piece signposts the kitchen and a bold pink painting by Simon Fujiwara in the lobby picks up the color of the Persian carpet below. While other so-called art hotels are little more than blank canvases, Château Royal walks the walk: owner Stephan Landwehr’s connection to Berlin’s contemporary scene goes back to the 1980s, when he started out as a picture framer; later, as a restaurateur, he opened Grill Royal, which became a popular artists’ haunt. His partner, Kirsten, co-curated the spaces, which flow from the bar through a darkened fireplace room to the restaurant, Dóttir, where Icelandic chef Victoria Eliasdóttir plates up buttermilk-steeped artichokes and linseed meringue. Artists were given free rein in the bedrooms, with results that are occasionally challenging but often surprisingly restrained. With Berlin currently rebalancing itself – the west is regaining its confidence, while Kreuzkölln in the east picks up hipster points – this arty but not too-cool-for-school hotel in central Mitte is a fine place from which to reframe the city.