Bar dining in Berlin at the Bateau Ivre is a local landmark on the busy Oranienstraße. Too large to be strictly termed a drinking den, but with the appropriate conspiratorial atmosphere, Bateau Ivre’s weathered and warmly inviting interior befits the alternative crowd of intellectual and free thinking regulars. The café takes its name from a poem by Rimbaud, which used to be printed along one of the back walls. Colourful paper lanterns bob gently on ropes suspended from the ceiling like bizarre, oversized bunting. By mid-morning the steam from the bar-top coffee machine envelops the room and by lunchtime the bar staff are busy pouring beers, making Bateau Ivre a halfway house somewhere between a café and the local pub. Tapas and home-made quiches provide sustenance and the floor to ceiling windows that surround the building are perfect for people watching.