RESTAURANT NOBELHART & SCHMUTZIG, BERLIN

Billy Wagner: … In addition to our shopping behavior, we think a lot about how we want to present ourselves as a gastronomic company and what conversations and discussions we want to initiate in society. For example, anti-discrimination is very important to us. That's why we have redesigned our toilet signs so that people who are not clearly male or female can now also feel addressed.

Billy Wagner: Definitely. For us, luxury means: coming to Nobelhart & Schmutzig and having time, being able to put away your mobile phone and, of course, being able to afford it here. Luxury in the classic sense is based on a different set of values. We, on the other hand, are playing with the new values. People who come to us consider it a luxury to support our entire value chain with their money. Our guests can be sure that our employees and producers make a good living and e.g. interns cannot work without pay. For example, they understand luxury as knowing where the carrot on their plate came from and how the animals were fed and kept before they became part of our dishes.

Billy Wagner: We aim to process the best food and to respect the people who produce it. Micha Schäfer and his team are in direct contact with our producers and always know what's going on in their lives, e.g. who currently has products of a special quality or who is currently struggling with difficulties. They make their purchasing decisions based on this.

Billy Wagner: In most catering establishments, chefs are often decoupled from product procurement and hardly know anything about the challenges on the producer side. We focus on the people who produce for us. This means that completely different criteria count for us than just the purchase prices. This not inconsiderable additional effort pays off in turn due to the high prices that you pay with us.

Billy Wagner: Our guests see the additional effort and reward it by being willing to pay the prices that we charge for our food and drinks. But in fact, we make this effort primarily for ourselves, i.e. for our employees, who have decided to work with us and not in a backward-looking restaurant for precisely this reason. So our concept helps us position ourselves as an employer and attract people who share our values.

Billy Wagner: We consciously ask whether the collaboration is also a win situation for our producers. In the annual gardener talks, we ask, for example, whether our purchase prices have enabled them to make a good living or whether we have to correct the prices in the coming year. We also ask if we have bought the right amount from them or if they would like to buy more or less next year. We see the benefit for us primarily in the fact that we get the best products and learn what agriculture is really about. This is also a great learning experience for our employees.

Billy Wagner: The mention in the Michelin Guide and also in The World's 50 Best is an important sales argument for us, especially for our international clientele. Those who don't know us yet and are in Berlin for the first time often come to us via these channels. For customers who already know us, this is not so important.

Billy Wagner: When we first started out in 2015, two things were very clear. We wanted to create a restaurant where, as a guest, you can get very close to the craft. Therefore, the kitchen is in our guest room and guests can watch our team at work. We were also sure that we wanted to cook regionally. Everything else has built on it or changed over the years.

Billy Wagner: (laughs) yes, I would do it again. Nobelhart &Schmutzig is also a kind of self-realization place for Micha and me. We can do things here the way we think is right and good. And we can also develop personally very strongly with the restaurant. Because we allow ourselves to ask us questions such as "What do I have to do to be able to work well?" Or also "How do I want to shape my life?" And I benefit every day from the wonderful food that we process here. As a private person, you would have to put in a lot of effort to get such quality. And here it is part of our “daily business”.

Billy Wagner: Of course, the past two years have been very exhausting at times due to Corona. But I've never regretted it. I am grateful that we have already achieved so much together and have been able to contribute to a change in gastronomy and also in society.

Billy Wagner: We are currently very much concerned with the topic of anti-discrimination and want to focus even more on it in the future. For example, we think a lot about things like equal pay or diversity. Why do we receive applications predominantly from men and so few from people with an immigrant background? And how can we change so that more women feel addressed by us as employers? An important topic, in our opinion – with a lot of need for action. In general, we want to ensure that our work remains interesting and that we continue to move forward and not remain where we are. And of course we want to continue to take care of food & drinks😊.