Stay
Originally built in 1888 as the city’s state ministry, the building, which now houses Tortue Hamburg, a member of Design Hotels is a seriously smart base in the Stadthöfe district of downtown Hamburg, close to upmarket Neuer Wall and Großer Bleichen as well as picture perfect Alster Arcaden. Five single houses are connected by four inner courtyards, forming a new quarter right next to the city’s historic “Fleet” canal. Rooms, suites and long-stay apartments in seven categories are light and airy, with high ceilings and balconies. Breakfast is served à la carte in the property’s brasserie, which also does a mean steak-frites at lunchtime. Chic Bar Noir, in the hotel’s basement, is a low-lit kind of affair with a central bar, craft cocktails, French-accented food and a dance floor which spins to the tunes of DJ Agatino Romero every Thursday once the sun’s gone down.
Opening May 2024: Nestled between the Millerntor-Stadion and the Karoviertel, the almost 50m-high former wartime bunker rises like a colossus above the Heiligengeistfeld in the heart of St. Pauli. The city’s newest and quirkiest hotel, Reverb Hamburg by Hard Rock will take pride of place within its iconic grey concrete structure. A green roof-garden and “mountain path” circumnavigating the building are set to offer spectacular views across the city.
Tortue Hamburg Stadthausbrücke 10, 20355 Hamburg; +4940334414001; reservation@tortue.de; tortue.de
Reverb Hamburg by Hard Rock Feldstraße 66, 20359 Hamburg; reverb.hardrock.com
Eat
Natural wine fans will delight at Witwenball Küche & Wein, an incredibly welcoming restaurant in the Eimsbüttel neighbourhood, close to the U-Bahn station with the comical name, Schlump. ‘The Widow’s Ball’ takes its name from a former 1920s ballroom run by a local lady known simply as Elfriede. It’s a trendy yet homely bistro, a sophisticated vision of pale green and azure blue proportions, gleaming marble tables and a themed seasonal organic menu, which changes every few weeks. Witwenball showcases a 400-bottle-strong biodynamic wine list crafted by rising star German winemakers (the Scheuermann Rosengarten Chardonnay 2021 was sublime) to pair with a menu that dives deep into the finest fish, meat and vegetable minimalism. Special mention must go to the super attentive staff and their consistent founts of knowledge. Neni Hamburg is an incredibly buzzy and cool place – it was full to the rafters even on a midweek school night. Serving upmarket Middle Eastern delicacies in a spacious, industrial-chic space with kilim rugs and low-slung seating inside the 25hours Hotel in the more salubrious end of HafenCity. The wines from Yarden Mount Hermon in Galiläa were a revelation. From the outside it rather resembles a motorway slip road strip joint that’s tucked out of the way – in this case Veddel – an independent district of Hamburg neighbouring the HafenCity. Veddeler Fischgaststätte is the kind of place where your other half looks at you when you arrive and says, ‘Are you serious?’ But if you can leave your prejudices at the door, once inside you’ll be enamoured of its original 1950s décor and welcoming staff. I promise you will have the best fish and chips in the city, surrounded by wall-mounted fishing nets and other seafaring paraphernalia. You’ll be sat on communal tables with the locals, wherever they can fit you in, but you’ll meet all manner of folk, from local customs officers to Captain Birds Eye-resembling deep-sea fishermen. What’s more, you pay just under 10 euros for the pleasure, including a pint of the proletarian brew, Astra – it should be complemented by a shot of Korn or Kümmel, two kinds of clear local schnaps – it would be rude not to!
If you don’t manage to get to Bistrot Vienna, the next best schnitzel in town can be found at Ratsherrn Brewery’s own pub Altes Mädchen in Altona, just a stone’s throw from trendy Sternschanze. With 30 craft beers on tap and over 70 by the bottle, their beer sommeliers are on hand to recommend which beers will pair well with your food of choice. You can do all the googling in the world, but some places you discover purely by chance. And that’s exactly what happened with Thämers. Strolling back along the neon-clad seediness of the Reeperbahn, Thämers just appeared out of nowhere like a vision and looked so homely when we peered through the window that we were drawn in like magnets. And it was. Wine merchants Buhbe and Söhne once pressed wine directly on site here from the freshwater plus grapes from Bordeaux. It’s where Buhbe, the wine bar in the basement, gets its name – it’s also a secret tip when all the seats upstairs are full. If you must narrow it down to just two dishes, make it Mia Buhbe’s potato soup with ham on the bone and greens fresh from the market, and Eva’s Juicy chicken burger with bacon, fresh salad and homemade remoulade sauce – arguably the finest chicken burger of my life. And don’t forget the (and I don’t use this term lightly) life-changing fried potatoes – which regulars consider to be the best in the city. All washed down with copious Ratsherrn or (dare I say it from the South) Augustiner draft beers. For delectable Syrian cuisine in decadent surroundings hit up Saliba: a cosy spot with paisley shutters where diners feast upon falafel, meze platters and sweet treats by the Kleine Alster waters’ edge. Meanwhile, for a bargain lunch, Kini, in Altona’s edgy Schulterblatt serves up delicious plant-based/vegan Korean fare.
There’s all manner of fast food you should partake in while you’re in the Hanseatic City. Whether it’s a traditional herring sandwich at Brücke 10 on the banks of the river Elbe, a delicious currywurst from a roadside schnellimbiss – or a döner kebab, as they’re known here (although technically Turkish, the concept of meat and salad in flatbread is believed to have been invented in Germany). For those with a sweet tooth, while streuselschnecke are good, you can’t come to Hamburg and not try a legendary Franzbrötchen – delectable cinnamon-filled buns, the perfect accompaniment to your flat white. Ubiquitous though they may be, one of the best places to sample one is Café Luise, kleine Bäckerei in the northern suburb of Winterhude, close to the Lattenkamp U-Bahn station on Line 1. Based on the humble croissant, which became popular after Napoleon’s troops had occupied Hamburg between 1806 and 1814, break with tradition and plump for the crumble-covered apple version. You can thank me later.
Witwenball Küche & Wein Weidenallee 20, 20357 Hamburg; witwenball.com
Neni Hamburg Osakaallee 12, 20457 Hamburg; nenifood.com
Veddeler Fischgaststätte Tunnelstr. / Am Bahndamm 70, 20539 Hamburg; Tel: +49-40-786389; info@veddeler-fischgaststaette.de
Bistrot Vienna Fettstraße 2, 20357 Hamburg; vienna-hamburg.de
Altes Mädchen Lagerstraße 28b, 20357 Hamburg; altes-maedchen.com
Thämers Großneumarkt 10, 20459 Hamburg; thaemers.de
Saliba Neuer Wall 13, 20354 Hamburg; +49 40-34 50 21; info@saliba.de; saliba.de
Kini Korean Susannenstraße 15, 20357 Hamburg; kini-korean.de
Café Luise, kleine Bäckerei Alsterdorfer Str. 59, 22299 Hamburg; cafe-luise-baeckerei.de
Secret Tip
Whenever you enter a shop or café, speak in the vernacular by dropping “Moin” into the conversation. It’s an abbreviation of the German greeting “Guten Morgen” (good morning) – it’s kind of lost its original meaning, so can be used at any time of the day.
Drink
The caffeine game in Hamburg is strong. Kaffeerosterei, close to the Speicherstadt Museum, is one of the best: Honduran and Sumatran blends dominate this industrial-sized unit, which takes over the ground floor of one of the imposing former red-brick warehouses with a revolving roastery at its centre. Their coffee, delivered directly via the Port of Hamburg, is freshly roasted every day using a gentle drum roasting process. For flat white fixes, Elbgold is another gem of a roastery just a hop step and a jump away from craft brewery Ratsherrn who run daily tours culminating in flights of ale tastings. The Zwickel and Dry Hopped Pilsner were life changers. It’s not often you stumble across a wine bar with a side-hustle of shoes, but at Scarpovino Wein- & Schuhhandel in Susannenstraße near the Schulterblatt such a place does exist where, among others, bottles of Oliver Zeter’s trademark Weissburgunders fight for shelf space with Blundstone boots. Bars in Hamburg rate among some of Germany’s true mixology powerhouses. Clockers in St Pauli, just a few doors down from the Beatles’ old bedsit in the Bambi Kino, is a fabulously gemutlich (cosy), as Germans would say, hidden gem of a place for a nightcap – if you can find it! It’s one of those bars with no name above the door, so hunt it down by its street number. Their house gin, Clockers, the perfect marriage between juniper and sweet lemon, is highly recommended. It’s a panoramic floor-to-ceiling window affair up on the 15th floor of the Campus Tower in HafenCity, where Puzzle Bar, brainchild of three Michelin-starred chef Kevin Fehling, offers panoramic vistas of the Hamburg skyline while guests down signature negronis with a wild berry twist. Continental boundaries are crossed at Dustin Lê’s Bā Nomu, where Asian-inspired cocktails are served in quirky drinking vessels like mini inflatable unicorns. Sultry speakeasy Le Lion • Bar de Paris lays claim to inventing its signature cocktail, the Gin Basil Smash. Plant yourselves on the sage-coloured velvet stools on the upper deck for fabulously well-heeled-people watching.
Ratsherrn Brauerei
Kaffeerosterei Kehrwieder 5, 20457 Hamburg; speicherstadt-kaffee.de
Elbgold Lagerstraße 34c, 20357 Hamburg; elbgoldshop.com
Ratsherrn Brauerei GmbH Lagerstraße 30a, 20357 Hamburg, Germany; +49 40 380728920; ratsherrn.de
Scarpovino Wein- & Schuhhandel Susannenstraße 29, 20357 Hamburg; +49 40 4390043; scarpovino.de
Clockers Paul-Roosen-Straße 27, 22767 Hamburg; +49 179 9769435
Puzzle Bar Versmannstraße 2/15. OG, 20457 Hamburg; puzzle-bar.de
Bā Nomu Schaumburger Str. 35, 20095 Hamburg, +49 40 56122698; nomu-hamburg.de
Le Lion • Bar de Paris Rathausstraße 3, 20095 Hamburg; lelion.net
Do
If you like your architecture dark and brooding, then you’ve come to the right place. Beginning your ‘architour’ at renowned architect Fritz Höger’s Renaissance Hamburg Hotel on Große Bleichen gives you a real sense of what’s to come. It’s long been one of my favourite buildings from the days when I used to call Hamburg home – a series of beautifully embellished golden triangular nuggets jut out markedly from the darkest brick facade in this tiered former publishing house. Architectural purists will further delight at the city’s striking Unesco World Heritage status Kontorhausviertel, which borders the Speicherstadt in the southeastern part of the old town. Dominated by the sleek ocean liner-resembling curvaceousness of the Chilehaus, this densely developed area of intricately ornamented dark brick façades with gold embellishments houses office complexes also originally built by Fritz Höger. As with neighbouring Sprinkenhof, these buildings were originally built from 1920-40 to accommodate companies with port-related activities. Executed in striking Brick Expressionist style with lozenge-shaped painted brick and regularly arranged ceramics depicting economic, trade and transport motifs, they make for eye-popping outer façades. A short stroll away, The Speicherstadt, Hamburg’s warehouse district, is one of the city’s picture-postcard landmarks – a wonderful red-brick and copper-roofed reminder of Hamburg’s rich and illustrious trading heritage. Home to the world’s largest complex of historic warehouses, spanning an area of some 260,000 square metres, it was constructed upon thousands of oak poles driven deep into the Elbe riverbed between 1883 and the late 1920s forming an interconnecting network of short, picturesque canals and a free economic zone in the port district. Whether you choose to take in a performance in one of its fabled acoustically perfected music halls or just admire its incredible structure from the outside, the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in HafenCity is a must-see. Elbphi as she is more affectionately known, Hamburg’s answer to the Sydney Opera House may have cost an arm and a leg to complete (originally estimated to cost around €240 million yet more than tripled to €866 million) but no one can doubt it’s a sight to behold, towering as it does above the precipice of the harbour’s Grasbrook peninsula. One of the best ways of appreciating its otherworldly structure is onboard a harbour cruise, a Hafenrundfahrt where you not only get up close and personal with ocean container vessels but Herzog and de Meuron’s shimmering edifice in the sky and much more besides. Once back on terra firma, enjoy a galão and pastel de nata in the Portuguese quarter as you admire the new mural Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Australian street artist Fintan Magee, specially commissioned to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the great Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich’s birth, stretching almost 200 square metres.
No trip to Hamburg would be complete without incorporating something Beatles-related. After all, it was here in a selection of St Pauli’s notorious night spots where the fab four made their name. Stefanie Hempel celebrates her 20th anniversary this year of running her highly acclaimed Hempel’s Beatles-Tour. With a ukulele tucked under her arm, a twinkle in her eye and an infectious smile Stefi guides and regales fans through the infamous backstreets of Hamburg’s red light district. Her tours are awash with insider stories and secret tips: with a fistful of keys to unlock doors to places not normally accessible to mere mortals: from Indra, the Kaiserkeller and Top Ten to the Star-Club, Bambi Kino and the famous doorway where John Lennon’s ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll’ album cover was shot – down the side of the Not the Girl Who Misses Much store of all places on Wohlwillstrasse, 20. No self-respecting football fan would pass up the chance of taking in an FC St Pauli game at Millerntor, the cult club’s stadium, which borders the Heiligengeistfeld close to the Reeperbahn. Although the team, kitted out in brown and white, has enjoyed only modest success on-field, the club, characterised by its Jolly Roger insignia, is widely recognised for its distinctive social culture, strongly aligned with left-wing politics.
Renaissance Hamburg Hotel Große Bleichen, 20354 Hamburg
Kontorhausviertel Fischertwiete 2a, 20095 Hamburg
Elbphilharmonie Platz d. Deutschen Einheit 4, 20457 Hamburg; elbphilharmonie.de
Elbreederei Abicht Harbour Cruise From stop St. Pauli Landungsbrücken, Brücke 1, 20359 Hamburg; abicht.de
Hempel’s Beatles-Tour +49 151 11221570; hempels-musictour.de
FC St Pauli Millerntor-Stadion, Harald-Stender-Platz 1, 20359 Hamburg; +49 40 3178740; fcstpauli.com
Shop
Shopping is one of Hamburg’s most pleasurable pastimes. You really are spoilt for choice. Mönckebergstraße, an 800m east-west stretch between the Hauptbahnhof and Rathausmarkt, is the city’s answer to Oxford Street, although more upmarket. Its home to a plethora of department stores like Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, Peek & Cloppenburg and a personal favourite of mine, the Hulbe-Haus, a former art trading post designed by Hamburg architect Henry Grell in 1910 in a kind of gable-roofed Flemish-meets-fantasia style, complete with a layered steeple topped by a golden cog. At Binnenalster you can admire the frescoed ceilings and Art Nouveau features of the old Mellin-Passage within the beautiful swan-flanked white arches of the Alsterarkaden, one of the city’s most iconic images. It’s the gateway to the plush Neuer Wall and Große Bleichen, Hamburg’s oldest shopping mile, and its decadent arcades where wealthy Hanseatic ladies dressed in chic mink coats partake in retail therapy before pulling away in their growling Porsche 911s. Beat a path to Meizun Farhat’s superb vintage emporium Rudolf Beaufays, close to Jungfernstieg, which she took over the running of back in 2017. It’s an absolute treasure trove and one of the finest sartorial vintage stores around with a fabulous array of yesteryear clothing for both men and women. Hop on the U-Bahn to Eppendorfer Baum, a leafy neighbourhood that’s often compared to London’s Notting Hill with its palatial houses and well-heeled residents. The weekly Isemarkt has been attracting grocery shoppers every Tuesday and Friday since it first opened back in 1949. Perusing its bounteous stalls makes for the perfect early morning stroll under a section of the Hochbahn elevated railway culminating at Hoheluftbrücke. The trendy, spotted with graffiti Karoviertel, a former slum, sandwiched between Sternschanze and Feldstraße in St Pauli houses an eclectic mix of stores promoting local designers, spread across edgy Marktstraße and Glashüttenstraße. Check out Goldig for a colourful and diverse selection of womenswear and accessories. Their super-friendly staff have even been known to offer husbands in tow a beer while their wives peruse; trainer fans will love Glory Hole Sneaker Shop, which majors on iterations of New Balance, Karhu and Club C vintage Reeboks. Meanwhile, Rotkäppchen Designs on Glashüttenstraße is great for hats of all descriptions: I particularly loved their camel trilbies with orange and blue contrasting trim on the brims. Destinations have been known to throw up the occasional iconic item of clothing: the Breton top and lederhosen to name but two. Given its seafaring heritage, perhaps it’s no surprise that Hamburg does a rather fine line in Hanseatic seafaring apparel, including super-insulative ribbed fisherman’s jumpers, the most authentic versions of which are to be found at Ernst Brendler. And if money’s no object, invest in a Kolani (100 per cent cashmere) seaman’s overcoat from Walther Eisenberg der Mützenmacher, just shy of £800. They even stock peaked sailor’s caps for wannabe ship’s kapitäns!
Rudolf Beaufays Büschstraße 9, 20354 Hamburg; +49 40 35715977; rudolfbeaufays.com
Goldig Marktstraße 143, 20357 Hamburg, Germany, goldigshop.de
Glory Hole Sneaker Shop Marktstraße 145, 20357 Hamburg; gloryholeshop.com
Rotkäppchen Designs Glashüttenstraße 102, 20357 Hamburg; +49 40 88145364
Ernst Brendler Große Johannisstraße 15, 20457 Hamburg ernst-brendler.de/Troyer-Merinowolle
Walther Eisenberg der Mützenmacher muetzenmacher.de
Secret Tip:
Unlike most other cities nowadays, so long as you have a ticket in your possession, there are no ticket barriers on the Hamburg transit system which means you can move freely and easily with no faffing. The popular Hamburg CARD offers up to 50% discount on the city’s most popular highlights as well as free travel on buses, trains and harbour ferries (hvv) on request. You can even supplement your Hamburg CARD by adding the Gourmet and Maritime upgrades.
Former Hamburg resident Lee Osborne is creative director of Secret Trips
