Big Mamma brings Circolo Popolare to Berlin's Kranzler Eck
The French group is turning the long-shuttered Café Kranzler on Kurfürstendamm into its third Berlin trattoria, with more than 250 seats under a 1950s glass rotunda.
Circolo Popolare Berlin, the trattoria brand's third address in the German capital, opens this November inside the long-closed Café Kranzler on Kurfürstendamm.
The site has sat empty for about two years, since the historic café shut its doors. Its round glass pavilion, topped by a red-and-white striped awning, is one of the best-known silhouettes on the Ku'damm. The original Kranzler lettering stays on the facade; "Circolo Popolare" is being added beneath it.
The new restaurant covers close to 1,000 square metres and seats more than 250 people, plus a terrace. That makes it the largest of Big Mamma's German openings so far, and the biggest single bet the group has placed on the city's dining scene.
The rotunda that once poured coffee for Ku'damm shoppers will soon pour Chianti instead.
Circolo Popolare's sharing menu
The format mirrors Circolo Popolare's London and Barcelona branches: a menu built for sharing, with fresh pasta such as gnocchi alla Sorrentina and Neapolitan pizza baked to order. The kitchen, led by chef Ruben, sources ingredients from more than 170 small Italian producers, a supply chain Big Mamma has built across its restaurants in France, the UK, Spain and now Germany.
The group positions Circolo Popolare as its most classic trattoria format, less theatrical than some of its other concepts, built around produce and a long, loud dining room rather than a gimmick. Expect communal tables, an open kitchen, and a wine list weighted toward small Italian growers rather than big-name labels.
A third address in Berlin
Big Mamma already runs Pamela on Gendarmenmarkt and Coccodrillo in Weinbergspark, and has expanded elsewhere in Germany with Edmondo in Hamburg and Giorgia in Munich. The Kranzler Eck opening extends that push into one of Berlin's busiest shopping streets, a scene that earlier this year saw the city take five of the nine CHEF:IN Awards titles. Big Mamma is betting a 1,000-seat-a-day trattoria can do for Ku'damm what it has done for high streets in Paris and London.
No exact opening date has been confirmed beyond "November." Big Mamma has a habit of soft-opening before any announcement, so Berliners may find out it has opened before the group says so.
