Alt Berliner Wirtshaus Henne

A tavern from 1908 on the former Wall: crisp fried chicken, potato salad and Kennedy's polite refusal on the wall.

Henne on Leuschnerdamm opened in 1908, then as the Wirtshaus zur Hirschecke, in a residential building from 1888. During the Nazi era, persecuted Social Democrats met here. After the war the tavern sat right on the Wall, which ran just five metres from the door. Inside, it still looks as it did more than a hundred years ago.

In the dining room hangs a letter from the White House. In 1963 the landlord at the time, Konrad Litfin, invited John F. Kennedy for a Berliner Weisse. The reply came on 1 May: the schedule for the Berlin visit was too tight, and a signed photo was enclosed. Litfin had both framed.

There is essentially one dish: young chicken, fried crisp to a secret recipe, with potato or cabbage salad and a beer. In summer you sit outside under linden trees. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 5 pm.