Ralf Rüller founded THE BARN in 2010 and pioneered specialty coffee in Germany “in an uncompromising way”. The café in Mitte, in the gallery district, is where it started. Its nickname is “The little Barn”: a tiny room fitted out in reclaimed wood, with a La Marzocco PB-X espresso machine, Mythos 1 and EK43 grinders and a Hario brew bar for hand brews. Sandwiches and cakes come from THE BARN’s own kitchen, with vegan options, fresh juices and teas, and the shelves carry roasted beans and brewing equipment.
THE BARN roasts every coffee by hand on a tailor-made Probat drum roaster, keeping the roast light to show the terroir of each farm, and chooses lots scoring 86 points and above. In principle it never blends. Its baristas evaluate each roast on the company’s own bars. Its awards include Best Coffee Chain Western Europe at the 2023 European Coffee Awards and Best Specialty Coffee Roaster for Europe and the Middle East in 2019.
The second café opened in Prenzlauer Berg in 2012, in what was then the roastery and production floor. Berlin now has ten cafés, each designed around its building: the 1912 Weinhaus Huth by Potsdamer Platz, a house more than 250 years old by Hackescher Markt, a Werner Düttmann concrete building near Checkpoint Charlie that opened in January 2024, and the Kranzler Eck in Charlottenburg, reopened in November 2024 with a double-height glass façade. Most bars run a La Marzocco PB-X with a Marco brew bar, and the Potsdamer Platz café holds an alcohol licence for coffee cocktails, natural wine and local craft beer. Outside Berlin there are two cafés in Munich and one each in London, Palma, Dubai, Seoul and Jeju. The current retail range is listed below with the roaster’s own tasting notes.
Coffee on the shelf
- Papaya
- Mango
