Comfort Food #9: Lode van Zuylen & Stijn Remi – From contemporary restaurant to temporary bakery

“I hope the role of the guest will change. It’s over with no-shows and last-minute bullshit. […] Don’t fool with restaurants right now.“

Lode Van Zuylen – Lode & Stijn, 20.04.20

Lode van Zuylen and Stijn Remi are owners of the restaurant Lode & Stijn in Berlin and members of Die Gemeinschaft. The restaurant offers contemporary cuisine based on ingredients from small regional producers, and has been since 2016 one of the most interesting in the city. The Corona crisis forced Lode & Stijn to close their restaurant too – but they quickly found a different path: they converted the restaurant into a bakery where you can buy freshly baked sourdough bread, and a grocery store with everything you need at home in quarantine: butter, fresh vegetables, preserved food, beer and wine as well as changing specialties from their kitchen like the legendary Bitterballen or Baisers to take away.

We spoke with Lode van Zuylen und Stijn Remi about how the Corona crisis will affect the concept of their restaurant and their upcoming venture “Remi”, and we questioned how the behavior of guests must change in the future. Thanks to the open communication of many restaurant businesses, consumers are currently becoming aware of the complex supply chains behind the dishes. A precise calculation on which a multitude of actors rely – from the farmer to the cheesemaker, from the butcher to the winemaker. Lode & Stijn hopes that in the future guests and restaurateurs will meet more on an eye level as a result of the increased transparency.

The conversation was moderated by our director Friederike Gaedke.

Lode & Stijn: Website | Instagram | Facebook
Lode van Zuylen: Instagram
Stijn Remi: Instagram