I can't believe there are this many reviews about this place. Naja, it's not as if it matters one way or the otherone hardly plans a trip to the Rote Rose, much less based upon premeditated research.
No, it's a place one goes because it's the only place open, and one lives too far away, or one's friends live too far away from one's apartment to come over, or one's friends indeed live only a few blocks away from one but the lavatory at the Rote Rose looks like a hospital room in comparison to one's own filthy jax.
I've been to the Rote Rose both drunk and sober, and I must say: it doesn't make much difference one way or the other. Rote Rose is not a bar, it's a dark hollow in the front of a Kreuzberger Altbau in which somebody decided to stick a couple of uncomfortable benches and sell drinks off a truly basic-to-below-average menu, 24 hours a day. Not sure why I and so many others have wasted so many words here writing about it; it's hardly worth mentioning, quite literally a hole in the wall and miles from approaching anything like an institution.
I won't comment on the Publikum (besides, user grosslyoverrated before me summed it up much more poignantly that I ever could) but will say this: I grew up in a fucking bad neighborhood (the likes of which are unknown in Berlin, let alone Germany) and in my hometown have been, on separate occasions, followed home, jumped, and robbed, and as a result am never scared of anyone, anywhere, everexcept at the Rote Rose. I don't know if I was actually in any physical danger or not (any more than one is at any given momentnothing's impossible) but the last time I was in the Rote Rose was the first time in over a decade and certainly the only time since I've lived in Europe, that I was actually a tick nervous.
Fazit: going to the Rote Rose is pretty much the same as admitting you don't have enough imagination to think of a comfortable and/or interesting spot to grab some beers from the Späti and chill in. Seriously, all the bars are closed in the O-straße? Then take your funky ass home, or pick up some bum bottles of cheap Korn and sit at Planufer. Or head to the Trinkteufel, the Milchbar, Bar 11 or Wild at Heart. Rote Rose is for people who don't have a clue what lies in the next block, not for super adventurous culture safarists who just want to get away from the schicki mickies in Luzia or avoid the tourist children in Cake. You go to the Rote Rose because you've given up/are too wasted to schlepp yourself anywhere else (yet another a good indication that home would be a much better choice).
That said: I still give the place three stars for: being open all night, good location, not giving in to peer pressure and actually making a bar real people would want to sit at just to make a buck, and the nice bartenders. Really, the bartenders are super friendly and chill, without fail, whoever's standing behind the bar at the Rote Rose is the most pleasant person I've been served by since, well, the last time.
(that's a lot of words for a place not worth mentioning. maybe i'm missing something after all.) read more