Berlin: New restaurants, deli & museum

The NY Times reports on the reconversion of the Ehemalige Jüdische Mädchenschule (Auguststrasse 11-13; maedchenschule.org ) in Berlin into public spaces with resraurants, a deli, and museums. The full story is here, but a few highlights are below.

Museums & galleries:

Galerie Michael Fuchs (49-30-2200-2550; michaelfuchsgalerie.com) - home to the Warhol paintings and the Stella sculpture - has already mounted a show: it is presenting mixed-media works by 20 artists until March 31. Camera Work Contemporary (camerawork.de), another gallery, is exhibiting large-format photographs by Robert Polidori through April 21. And on March 29, Eigen+Art Lab (49-30-246-2840; eigen-art.com/lab) joins the fray with a show by the English painter Ryan Mosley.

The final element will arrive in July, when the museum called the Kennedys (thekennedys.de), the second largest Kennedy museum in the world, moves from its spot at the Brandenburg Gate. Visitors will be able to see photographs and video clips from John F. Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

Restaurants:

With ... Murano glass chandeliers, Pauly-Saal restaurant (49-30-3300-6070; paulysaal.com) could be mistaken for a gallery. Dishes like duck with brioche dumplings (32 euros, about $42 at $1.32 to the euro) and veal heart with herb noodles (18 euros) were commendable, when at last they arrived.

Another restaurant, the Kosher Classroom (49-30-315-950-950; thekosherclassroom.com; Thursday to Sunday), serves an inspired Sabbath dinner - think veal roast with apricots and carrot lasagna - on Friday evenings (75 euros for four courses).

Deli:

Mogg & Melzer Delicatessen opens on the ground floor in April. ... The 30-seat delicatessen will serve classics like pastrami on rye, bagels and lox, and matzo ball soup. The owners are building a smokehouse out back for ribs (*), salmon and barbecued brisket.

(*) But not spare ribs, I'll bet.