leuchtstoff - Kaffeebar und Bakery

4 Rodrigo Rivera - 3 months ago

This cafe is trendy among local hipsters. Although the location feels alternative, this might be misleading, as the prices are on the high side. Although expensive, pastries are nothing special here. The cafe fares better. In summer, this place gets too hot to sit indoors, whereas outdoors, there is no shadow. A better option is to take away and walk to the nearby parks.

3 Ksenia Sirota - 3 months ago

Loved that there’s a large offering of coffee from local roasters.
Didn’t like that the banana bread I’ve got was dry with one side being stale from sitting on the shelf for some time. There was some hint on leaving a tip though I took my order to go.
Hope for a better experience for the next customers

3 Randon Rosenbohm - a month ago

How did they get those couches up there? Had everything I needed in the moment (place to work, a gluten free treat, tampons in the bathroom). I have walked by a few times and snubbed my nose because it seems so trendy, but it’s actually really cute in here and seems like a good place for me to make a pit stop at!

4 Zablon Msagha - a week ago

Really good coffee, cozy spot to work. The butter croissant is so nice.

5 Carles Lorente - 4 weeks ago

Nice place to have a good coffee (lecker capuccinos) and a croissant, sandwich or piece of cake (vegan option avaliables!!).

The music and the ambience is so good, calmly and you can even work there with your laptop.

They have a terrace in the street, and we repeat a couple of times. The staff is nice and kind… totally recommended!

5 Jessica Jordan - 3 months ago

Cozy interior design inspired by Kreuzkoelln grunge, extremely friendly and accommodating service and an overall relaxing vibe. The café offers a variety of specialty roasts, as well as plenty of vegan, and a few gluten-free, food options.

This is a hidden gem in the Berlin café scene and definitely worth a visit if you're strolling around S+U Hermannstraße!

2 Melvin - 4 weeks ago

No laptop rule being not enforced (others were sitting there with laptops open). Suddenly I get told “no laptops, thank you.”

I saw people studying there with books, pens and calculators open (sitting alone). I saw people on their phones (sitting alone). And here I am to make an educated guess why they said it to me.

I come to the conclusion that their team has their culture not set strongly enough as they are not clear enough in their communication. Realizing this while I am still eating my sandwich felt uncomfortable. Since I already felt uncomfortable let’s see if I can help with it. They don’t want people like me (digital nomads), let’s make sure they communicate that so I would not have paid 15 euro’s afterwards. And I pay that much precisely because I know that a 3.50 euro drink is not enough for them, I pay it out of politeness with the implicit expectation that I can sit there.

But they have a no laptop rule, while there were people on their laptops.

I raise the issue with the staff. The staff was clearly busy, by this point I felt so uncomfortable about the situation that I didn’t care. They needed to ban me at the gate. They made me go through this, their culture needs to be fixed now.

I raise it, purely talking on what I am observing. The woman in front of me doesn’t let me finish my point. I interrupt her and ask her to finish my point. She allows me to do that. Clearly this was such a triggering issue that they don’t allow a customer with a calm tone of voice to raise their concern. I make the point. She says they don’t want people with laptops on the weekend because it ruins the weekend atmosphere.

Cool, I am fine not being here. I wish you guys would’ve told me upfront.

I got emotional after that comment, because I can’t help but think it’s a weird form of discrimination, but that’s something I have to think deeper about to see if it is. Unfortunately, I did get emotional because of it, so did she. Well, she already was emotional when I raised the concern. I could see why, other than it being a triggering issue they were under a lot of pressure and it seems like there is no time allocated to talk about how to set a culture to both employees and customers (that’s my guess, I don’t actually know that). But her being emotional wasn’t helping in keeping my cool.

So why not 1 star?

Coffee was okay (and I am critical, okay means top 20%)
Sandwich was good

And a guy stepped in (from their staff) to resolve the situation and listen to my feedback.

Not 3 stars, because digital nomads aren’t welcome. I am not welcome. The place gave me the idea that I was and then mid-bite in my sandwich I get told in a very subtle way that I am not with “no laptops, thank you”

If you’re not a digital nomad: clearly a 5 star place, enjoy. It’s worth it :)

And to the coffee place: sorry for giving a 2 star rating, but you can clearly take the hit. Moreover, anyone reading this review will realize you’re a cool place to stay, except for digital nomads needing to get work done. If anything, I am helping you to enforce the rule of no laptops.

Cheers!