'Soto' and cocktails at a home away from home in Berlin

Christina Schott, Contributor, Berlin

Imagine the living room of your grandma, maybe at the beginning of the '60s, and you will get the picture of homey Intersoup cafe-bar.

There are small tables, surrounded by cushy chairs, each one topped with a little flower arrangement. The wallpaper has big patterns and the lamps are the kind one usually finds in the attic of a forgotten house.

"We bought 90 percent of the furniture at flea markets," the owner, Yeferson Yahya, said. "The exact idea was that everybody could feel themselves and at home here."

It was three years ago when the Berlin-based Indonesian gave up his secure, well-paid bank job and realized his dream of owning his own soup and cocktail bar in Prenzlauer Berg, the happening place in the eastern section of the city.

He manages it together with his German business partner Jens Wiege.

Unlike other Indonesian restaurant owners in Europe, he did not look to draw Germans with "ethnic" touches of a plate of fried rice, gado-gado vegetable salad or a few gaudy umbrellas from Bali. Instead, the 41-year-old economist wanted to create a place where different cultures can meet without feeling out of their own comfort zones.

Besides the inviting living room atmosphere, he wanted to keep the place simple and open to everybody, an intercultural soup and cocktail bar where people can feel relaxed and comfortable.

Apart from the daily changing soup menu, Intersoup offers cake and fruit to eat, nothing else. But the soups are rich and various, from French tomato cream to Russian Soljanka.

"Our joker is the Intersoup, which is a mixture of Indonesian soto ayam (chicken broth with vermicelli) and Thai tom yam served with chicken, crabs, fish or tofu," Yeferson said as he proudly presented his most popular creation, the only menu item served every day.

The other choices vary depending on hot or cold weather.

"In Indonesia, we have a common culture of eating soto. In Germany, however, soups are usually not eaten as a main dish. But because it is cold most of the time in this country, soup is just the right thing to warm up the body and mind," the former chairman of the German Indonesian Student Association said.

Those still in need of an energy fix can listen to the club music and sip on a cocktail, like a strawberry daiquiri, Watermelonman or Mamakisa, a mixture of mango and passion fruit juices, mint and rum.

Many of Yeferson's friends doubted the simple concept would be a success, but it worked. Intersoup not only emerged as the the most popular hangout among the younger Indonesian community in Berlin, but also a favorite meeting point for Germans living in the area, international students and artists, such as Arahmaiani during her most recent stay in the city.

"They keep coming, because it is not too Indonesian in here, but a relaxed atmosphere with mixed people," said Iwan, a Berlin-based Indonesian who regularly meets his friends at Intersoup.

"There are not many other places, where I could imagine this bar," said Yeferson, who has lived in Hamburg, Amsterdam and London. "In my opinion, Berlin at the moment is the most interesting city in all the world, the systems still clash -- and Prenzlauer Berg, our area, is still developing.

"That's our chance to integrate ourselves."

People start coming in just after opening hour at noon, having one of the team's soup creations for their lunch break and reading the newspapers provided. Students and neighbors drop by in the afternoon, having coffee and cake while gossiping about the latest news from their campus or the neighborhood.

More guests arrive in the evenings, crowding not only the grandma chairs, but also the Indian style podest with water pipes in the middle-room, listening to the music played by a DJ.

As international as the soup menu is, so is the array of people who eat there, and German, Indonesian, French and English words resound through the room. The DJs arrange a global beat spanning from India to Latin America and points between, and the bands performing at Intersoup's subterranean event room come from France, Canada and New Zealand.

"It is a really nice mixture, not too obtrusive, but one can take this atmosphere home," a German woman, dropping in for , said.

If there is no music, the owners show films from all over the world, presenting a certain country's culture, such as on "Iranian" night. Even the 15-person staff is international: cooks from France and Sudan, waitresses from Germany and Indonesia.

"My staff does not have to be beautiful, but charming," Yeferson said. "Maybe this is an Asian value, to keep smiling."

His family does not really understand his choice to become a restaurateur.

"'We sent you abroad for a better education and now you want to sell soto?'" Yeferson remembered of the initial reaction of his father.

"But when I remember my work at the bank, I think this is the much nicer way to earn money; I am my own boss, meet my friends during work and still make a good living."

A new Intersoup restaurant will soon open in Barcelona, Spain. At famous Ramblas Street, Yeferson and Wiege have the help of a Spanish partner for a 1,200 square meter venue, which will be the site of a cafe-bar-restaurant, a club and a movie theater under the same international concept.

"My dream is to one day open something like this in Yogyakarta or Bali. But we are not yet ready for this, maybe I will keep this dream for my retirement. With Barcelona, I am already one step closer to it," Yeferson said.

------------------------ Intersoup Schliemannstrasse 31 Prenzlauer Berg Berlin -------------------