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"AD Travels: Red-Hot Berlin\nThe City's Mitte District Gains New Polish, Presence, and Glamour\nSince its debut in 2009, the Amano has become Mitte's most successful new boutique hotel. The rooms are appealingly simple, the lobby is a lively meeting place for locals, and the bar and rooftop lounge have become undisputed hot spots. Ester Bruzkus, who did the interior design, credits the owners for opening their pocketbooks to get the right look: \"It was the first time working in Mitte where I got to use whatever brands I wanted\u2014Artemide, Gervasoni, Zeitraum.\" Rates from around $130/night; hotel-amano.com\nFounded in the early 1990s, this pioneering contemporary-art center mounts avant-garde exhibitions of rising or unjustly overlooked names. Pictured is a recent installation by Polish artist Paulina Olowska. kw-berlin.de\nThe insiders' pick for Mitte's best restaurant is this intimate French bistro housed in a former kebab joint. With only seven tables, booking ahead is crucial. The menu, displayed on giant blackboards, is authentic French: fish soup, escargots, veal tartare. 011-49-30-67-30-20-51\nThis tiny boutique on Torstrasse has garnered a reputation among stylesetters for its stock of rare, unworn vintage eyewear. Now, proprietor Uta Geyer has debuted her own collection inspired by the best designs of the last century\u2014 dashing and romantic frames that bring to mind Berlin's bohemian past. lunettes-kollektion.com\nLast year this outpost of the London members-only club opened in a former Communist-party archive. The tongue-in-cheek country-house decor, playful atmosphere (ping-pong in the lobby), and rooftop pool have quickly found favor with well-heeled Berliners\u2014and the rooms, also available to nonmembers, are the most comfortable in Mitte. Rates from around $170/night; sohohouseberlin.com\nMitte's bo\u00EEte of the moment is found hidden under a railway bridge. Dress the part and you'll get past the doorman and into a tunnel-like cocktail lounge plated with mirrors and lit by a jet-engine-shaped lamp at one end. There's a DJ, an extensive cocktail menu, and a backroom cantina for those who like to fuel up before dancing all night. tausendberlin.com\nMuseum Island can feel overcrowded with tourists, but you should make time to see this 19th-century museum devoted to ancient treasures and artifacts (including an iconic bust of Nefertiti). Reduced to a near-ruin by wartime bombing, the building has only recently reopened, thanks to a stunning and meticulous renovation by British architect David Chipperfield. neues-museum.de\nIt doesn't get any more cheerful and relaxed than this new locavore caf\u00E9 with its micro-roasted coffee and tasty artisanal sandwiches. It's the perfect place to recharge while gallery-hopping along Auguststrasse, just steps away. A recommendation: the carrot cake. \"It's from my mother's recipe book,\" says the friendly owner, Ralf R\u00FCller (pictured). thebarn.de\nMitte teems with galleries, from newcomers like Peres Projects to established spaces such as Neugerriemschneider and Spr\u00FCth Magers. Put the latter, housed in an 18th-century social club, at the top of your list, given its generous exhibition rooms and star-filled roster, which includes Richard Prince, Andreas Gursky, and Louise Lawler (2009 installation shown). spruethmagers.com\nThe Spanish shoe company's new hotel has a chic-functional aesthetic and an inside-out fa\u00E7ade (the room numbers are displayed to the street on exterior translucent shades). The interior design is spare but considerate, with Shaker pegs along the bright red walls of the rooms, hanging lamps, and ample bathrooms illuminated by enormous windows. The top-floor lounge and terrace with food and drink available 24 hours is a thoughtful touch for the just-arrived and jet-lagged. Rates from around $230/night; casacamper.com\nCasa Camper tapped Albert Raurich, former head chef at Spain's temple of gastronomy El Bulli, to helm its new ground-floor restaurant\u2014the most talked about in Mitte. Take a seat at the gleaming white dining bar fronting the open kitchen and try not to be intimidated by the menu, which offers a choice of 12 or 16 courses. The pan-Asian tapas-inspired dishes, from pickled cucumber to egg soup to Cantonese-style pork, are delicately flavored and well paced while the cool, sleek space, designed by Paris-based siblings Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, makes you want to linger. dospalillos.com\nThis new art venue on gallery-packed Auguststrasse comes courtesy of Thomas Olbricht, a physician with an extensive collection of works by major contemporary artists\u2014John Currin, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman\u2014as well as Renaissance and Baroque objets. The latter form the site's permanent collection, \"Wunderkammer,\" while temporary exhibitions aim to challenge and titillate (\"X-Rated,\" pictured, runs through May 8; a show devoted to cannibalism opens May 29). me-berlin.com\nThis massive bunker has been many things since it was built by the Nazis\u2014a banana warehouse, a prison, even a fetish club. Advertising executive Christian Boros bought it in 2003 and spent the next five years transforming the structure into an evocative venue for his personal art collection (tours by appointment only on weekends; reserve online). After a three-year run, the current exhibition is due to change soon, so hurry to see Boros's acclaimed assemblage of installations by Olafur Eliasson, Kitty Kraus, Anselm Reyle, and others.\n\n sammlung-boros.de\nBelgian wine journal Tong, San Francisco's Meatpaper, UK cycling quarterly Rouleur\u2026every magazine you can imagine\u2014and a few you probably couldn't\u2014is on display in this newsstand-style shop tucked among art galleries on Auguststrasse. doyoureadme.de\nC/O's atmospheric former post office building is as much the attraction as the institute's exhibitions of world-class photography (shown are works by Bettina Rheims). Floors of ornate tile, heavy steel doors, foxed-plaster walls\u2014it's a vision of Old Berlin and one you should hasten to see, as C/O is being forced into a new space due to open this summer. co-berlin.info\nMulackstrasse is Mitte's best and most intimate shopping street, and Leyla Piedayesh's Lala Berlin is its go-to centerpiece. Eight years ago the designer quit her job with MTV to create a line of luxurious cashmere scarves (still Piedayesh's signature) and has since expanded her line to include gossamer silk dresses, tailored jackets, and a new shoe collaboration with Un\u00FCtzer. lalaberlin.com"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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