Galander Charlottenburg

You would be forgiven for walking right past the Charlottenburg incarnation of Galander. Located on a once-sketchy but now forgettable stretch of Stuttgarter Platz, the narrow bar with its dark wood and ornate copper-plate interior exudes the kind of classic cocktail bar elegance you wouldn’t expect to find on a street that faces onto the city’s main east-west elevated rail line. But while the S-bahn rolls by in the distance, one can sip a wide assortment of classic and neo-classic cocktails, either on a stool at the bar or in one of the leather armchairs in the small, chandeliered back room. And although the drinks are primarily old-school, the menu is about as modern as it gets. Opening the leather-bound book one discovers not a series of printed pages, but rather an iPad, where you can scroll through (and read more about) whatever it is you’re about to drink.