When your boss organizes a client dinner in Seattle and later tells you he expects the same thing in Berlin the following year, you don’t really get a choice—you just get a deadline.
Finding a good restaurant in Berlin for 6–8 people, on a specific date, with the right balance between professional and relaxed, turned out to be harder than expected. Before that even came the careful part: inviting the right clients, making sure no one was accidentally left out, and managing RSVPs with as little friction as possible. Thankfully, it all came together.
We ended up at Poveracci, an Italian restaurant on Torstraße in Mitte—and it was a very good call.
There were six of us in the end. The food was excellent across the board, but the real highlight was the staff: warm, sharp, effortless. The kind of people who make you feel like a regular even on your first visit. Italian? Probably. Authentic? Definitely.
Unexpectedly, they seated us in a private room, which immediately changed the tone of the evening. It felt intimate, slightly conspiratorial—almost mafia-like in the best possible way. Meanwhile, from the main dining room, you could hear larger corporate tables: loud, cheerful, fully in celebration mode.
At one point, one of those groups had hired a singer from the Apollo Theater in NYC to perform Christmas songs. I only caught a glimpse when I went to the restroom—a sharply dressed, larger-than-life presence you couldn’t see from our room, but could definitely feel through the walls.
The wine was spot-on. Desserts were genuinely mind-blowing.
When we finally got up to leave, I realized I’d lost the cushion from my brand-new B&O H100s. Cue mild panic. I went back the next day, half expecting disappointment—but they’d kept it safe. The staff assumed I’d returned for the invoice (which they’d already emailed me right after payment), but I wasn’t there for paperwork – I was already planning my next visit.
