Zapata

When thinking of a setting as a counter-culture clubhouse for the Elysians in downtown Berlin, there was really only one choice: the strangest building I've ever been in.

Café Zapata, the ironworks gallery, and the club upstairs were real places. They were all housed in a building that was built as a department store in the early 1900s and was indeed used to house prisoners in WW2.

After the war, the building found itself in the Russian quarter of Berlin, and at some point, the East Berlin city planners decided to start tearing it down, but gave up part way through. Then the reunification of Germany happened in the early 90s and the party started.

The artists moved in, creating their metal-work gallery and extending it into the sandy courtyard behind the building.

The top floor was converted into a club called "Tacheles" which is a Yiddish word for honest-talk. And then there was the staircase. Creepy and cool.

And when you reach the ground floor, you've made it to Café Zapata, a favorite location for bar bands in the 90s. And yes, there was a fire-breathing dragon.

Sadly, anything this weird, sitting right downtown in a European capital was destined to fall victim to the forces of development sooner or later.

But it was there.