Cosy Italian restaurant where you can enjoy a glass of Italian wine, produced in lands confiscated from the Mafia, and taste an Italian specialty. Try their bruschetta, it’s awesome!

Centopassi in Berlin: “Our wines come from lands confiscated from the mafia”

I Centopassi is a smart wine-bar located in the Friedrichshain area, where everyday people from all over the world come to enjoy a glass of Italian wine, produced in lands confiscated from the Mafia, or to taste an Italian specialty. Fabrizio and Domenico decided to open the wine-bar in April 2014: “The wine-bar name is a tribute to Peppino Impastato; our products have a story that has to be remembered; our products belong to the “Libera Terra” brand; sustaining this brand means for us sustaining people who remain in Italy. We are proud of our country and we want to make it a better place.”

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All our wines are a tribute to those who paid homage to the victims of the Mafia: for example the Negroamarodedicated to Hiso Telaray, a young Albanian guy killed at the age of 22 after having taken position against foremen who managed exploited hired hands’ shifts in Foggia, or the rosé Negroamaro from Salento (a geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apulia in Southern Italy) which calls to mind the smile and youthfulness of Michele Fazio and Gaetano Marchitelli, two young guys from Bari who were killed by the Mafia with no reason.”

“We have recently become the headquarter of the “Mafia? Nein Danke” association. Our cuisine is of course an Italian cuisine, our menu usually consists of: parmigiana di melanzane (an Italian dish made with a shallow or deep-fried sliced aubergine filling, layered with cheese and tomato sauce, then baked), caponata (a Sicilian aubergine dish consisting of a cooked vegetable salad made from chopped fried eggplant and celery seasoned with sweetened vinegar and capers in a sweet and sour sauce), ragu and tiramisu.

Domenico moved to Berlin 12 years ago: “I come from Aspra, a small hamlet near Palermo; there is no future for young people there, the Mafia is everywhere that’s why I decided to move to Berlin at the age of 24.”

Fabrizio comes from Sardinia: “I travelled a lot, I moved first to Munich and then after 8 years to Berlin; I miss Italy so much, every time I go on Holiday in Italy I feel powerless, I know I can’t do anything to change the state of things, I feel a sense of abandonment everywhere. In the early ‘90s I came many times in Berlin; at the time Friedrichshain was a no man’s land, today it is one the most beautiful and popular neighbourhood of the city. We hope that “I Centopassi”could become a Feinkost bar where we could serve our best products from South Italy.”

Centopassi

Open Monday to Saturday

Krossener Str 36, 10245 Berlin Friedrichshain
Tel. 030 83215464
Website
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Translation edited by: Giacomo Martella