New Restaurant: Brotzeit
By Oscar Holland
Images by Holly Li
If Brotzeit were a person, it would be a casual German. It would work for a digital marketing agency in East Berlin and have a nice collection of scarves.
On weekends it would watch German football (a reference to Brotzeit’s comprehensive Bundesliga screening schedule) and go to one of those mixed-sex saunas that have become the norm in Germany (a reference to Brotzeit’s penchant for wooden surfaces, not its customers’ liberal attitude to nakedness).
This hypothetical character would long for reliable chain restaurants, but not want anyone to know about its desires. So luckily the latest franchise of this Singaporean chain – found on the first floor of Liangmaqiao’s Grand Summit building – is the first to open in Beijing. As such, it retains hidden-gem status; because while you may not have heard of Brotzeit yet, it is offering a delightfully fresh take on the German eatery.
Wood is at the heart of the Brotzeit aesthetic. It comes in a variety of shades and is employed liberally across tables and walls. Diners sit on comfy leather benches bathed in natural light, giving the restaurant a warmth often lacking in mall settings. These all combine into something markedly contemporary, save for a mural of animals drinking beer in traditional Bavarian dress. But even this looks kind of neo-medieval, so still pretty fresh.
Before moving onto the food, it is important to note that Brotzeit isn’t just a casual German – it’s something a casual German does. Let us explain.
Literally meaning ‘bread time,’ brotzeit is a sort of meal-between-meals: smaller than a lunch, but bigger than a snack. A good brotzeit should offer (bread-based) food that is filling but light enough for you to progress to your next activity (a unisex Germanic sauna, for instance).
So it seems only right that we begin with a pretzel. It is accompanied by Weisswurst (RMB98) – sausages made from both veal and pork – and followed by an excellent rye pizza (RMB98). The latter’s base is rolled just thin enough to stop the heavy dough weighing it all down. This is the very stuff that ‘bread times’ were made for.
But in truth, Brotzeit is more than just a bread stop. Given the menu’s assortment of platters and sharing dishes (including the spectacular pork knuckle, RMB228), a long lunch actually seems more appropriate. Sure, there are some affordable brunch options for the work crowd, but with the aforementioned football and imported Krombacher draft beer (RMB58 for 0.3 liters, RMB118 for a liter), a simple bread time seems insufficient somehow.
Maybe this place should have been called Fleischzeit (meat time), Bierzeit (beer time), or some incredibly long and unpronounceable compound word that encompasses all of the above. But it doesn’t really matter – our casual German wouldn’t need to label time so strictly. Neither should you.
// Brotzeit, Daily 11am-1am, F109 Building 5, Grand Summit, 19 Dong Dongfang Lu, Chaoyang district 朝阳区东方东路19号楼一层F109 (8531 5166)
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