Lunch at Happa Vegan cuisine for all

Happa. A name that awakens childhood memories. Of the parental kitchen, of home-style cooking, of a feeling of satisfaction and security. Lunch at Happa, near Schlesisches Tor in Kreuzberg, the new restaurant of vegan queens Sophia Hoffmann and Nina Christine Petersen, offers all of this at fair prices.

The two took five years to think through their restaurant concept thoroughly. A harmonious workplace for the team, accessibility, organic ingredients - vegan, of course. But above all: a cuisine that does completely without vegan clichés, offers something new and at the same time familiar, and can attract and convince even vegan sourpusses.

"There is rarely a middle ground in vegan cuisine. Either there's comfort food like burgers or clean eating with bowls and co. For me, it's in between. I come from Bavaria and have lived in Vienna for a long time, so Alpine cuisine is a theme in our restaurant. I also like Mediterranean cuisine, so there's always pasta at dinner. Just good, vegan food," is how Sophia Hoffmann sums up her vegan restaurant concept.

The two founders of Happa are career changers in the restaurant business, and this is their first restaurant. The owners met at a zero-waste pop-up by Nina and soon realised they wanted to realise their dream of owning their own restaurant together. While Nina studied marketing and PR and applied her knowledge in the field of sustainability, Sophia Hoffmann is known as a successful author of vegan cookbooks who made cooking her profession as a self-taught cook.

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In their restaurant, they now offer a lunch table on weekdays and dinner events on Fridays. We visited Happa for lunch, which impressed with its small menu that changes daily. There is always a choice of two main courses, a soup, a side salad and cake.

The bread dumplings with creamed mushrooms are rich, hearty, and a joy to eat at this cold time of year. What's more, they are hardly distinguishable from the non-vegan original. Dish number two is a little lighter, more colourful and fruity: beetroot lentil hummus with miso carrots and orange coleslaw. It tastes fresh yet homely and is skilfully contrasted by the crunchy side salad.

Very full, we share another slice of lemon cake, plus a coffee, the only food at Happa that is not organic but produced by a Rwandan women's collective and, therefore, all the more worthy of support.

In line with the other focus on organic quality, Sophia is a certified specialist in organic gourmet food, and here attention is paid to low waste and optimisation of resources. The restaurant operators use rescued food from Querfeld. In other words, the famous vegetables that do not meet the visual sales standards.

In addition, you can find uses for every part of the produce at Happy: Oil from the green part of the leek, spice from onion peels, celery salt, zest for the lemon cake and much more. All this offers guests a delicious dining experience without a guilty conscience. This is underlined by the friendly and harmonious team because Nina and Sophia attach just as much importance to a paradigm shift in the gastronomic workplace as in the area of food.

Maximilian Zeh

Marketing & PR