Berlin

Butcher's Bar: a slaughterhouse speakeasy

Image credit: Butcher's Bar via Facebook

Even though the 'Fleischerei' on Rosenthaler Platz serves up a pretty decent Currywurst, that's not why you're here, right?

Instead, you're planning to stride past all those sausage-munching diners and head straight for the London-style phone box at the back, which doesn't contain a telephone but does have a concealed buzzer.

The Fleischerei in Torstrasse - which is also where you'll find the hidden Butchers Bar

Phone box entrance to the Butcher's Bar, Berlin

And then it's just a case of ringing the bell, enduring the obligatory peephole assessment, then (hopefully) stepping through a steel door into the red-lit environs of Butcher's Bar, a speakeasy cocktail lounge hewn from a former abbatoir.

Butcher's Bar, Berlin, a hidden cocktail lounge speakeasy

Cocktails in an old abbatoir, Berlin. Butchers Bar

Tiled walls and meat-themed paintings attest to the bar's grisly past, but these days it's all about killer cocktails in a cut above the rest setting.

Order a 'Blood and Sand' to stay ironically on-theme, and try to avoid quips about getting alcoholically slaughtered.

*Update: the Butcher's Bar has now closed. Why not check out a '20s style burlesque bar instead?*

Butcher's Bar, Torstraße 116, 10119 Berlin, located in the 'Fleischerei' wurst and burger restaurant.
Head towards the toilets at the back, then turn left to find the phone booth entrance.

Opening times: Tues-Sat from 8.30pm