Artisan Backstube · Kreuzberg, Berlin · Est. 2009

Risen overnight,
gone by noon.

Hearth & Rye is a small bakehouse working with stone-milled grain, a seventeen-year-old levain and a stone-deck oven lit at half past three every morning. When the shelf is empty, we close.

Explore the bake table Our story
Open today
7:00 – 18:00
First shelf
6:40, still warm
Levain “Lotti”
alive since 2009
A country sourdough boule with a scored, caramelised crust resting on floured linen in warm window light
A baker in a linen apron dusting flour over shaped dough on a wooden bench in morning light
The warm interior of the bakery: wooden shelves stacked with loaves behind a pastry counter

Our story

A small room, a loud oven, and seventeen years of mornings.

Hearth & Rye began in 2009 as a six-table shop on Falckensteinstraße, back when “sourdough in Kreuzberg” still earned you a raised eyebrow. Jonas Berger — trained in Freiburg and Copenhagen — arrived with two things: a jar of levain and the conviction that this city deserved bread worth queueing for.

Today, nine bakers from four countries share the bench. The levain — Lotti — is older than some of our apprentices. We still light the oven at 3:30, still bag every loaf in paper, and still close the door when the shelf is empty, because some things should never be rushed and never be stockpiled.

  • A levain named Lotti

    Fed twice a day since 2009. She decides the schedule — we just follow.

  • Grain with an address

    Rye and wheat from six family mills in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg.

  • Nine bakers, one bench

    From four countries, sharing one oven and one stubborn idea of good bread.

Jonas Berger founder & head baker

The bake table

What leaves the oven, and when.

A short menu on purpose. We bake a few things properly, in small runs, until the shelf is empty. Allergens are listed at the counter — ask, we like talking about it.

  • A round country sourdough loaf with an open, caramelised scored crust Daily · from 6:40

    Country Sourdough

    6,80 €

    Our daily loaf since 2009 — 72% hydration, two nights of cold ferment, thick singing crust. 750 g.

  • A dark wholegrain rye loaf, sliced to show a tight crumb with sunflower seeds Daily · from 7:30

    Vollkornbrot

    7,20 €

    100% stone-milled rye and sunflower seeds, 24 hours without a grain of yeast. Dense, honest, keeps a week. 1 kg.

  • Two golden baguettes with diagonal scoring in a linen-lined wicker basket Twice daily · 7:15 & 12:30

    Baguette Tradition

    3,40 €

    Poolish-based, blistered crust, baked twice a day so it never sits for longer than a lunch hour.

  • A butter croissant with glossy, flaky golden layers on a cream plate Daily · from 6:30

    Butter Croissant

    2,90 €

    Laminated over three days with Mecklenburg butter. Twenty-seven layers, no margarine, no mercy.

  • A pain au chocolat torn open to show dark chocolate batons inside golden laminated layers Daily · from 6:30

    Pain au Chocolat

    3,40 €

    Two batons of 64% Ecuador chocolate wrapped in crisp, shattering layers. Best before it cools.

  • A twisted cinnamon knot with pearl sugar on a cream ceramic plate Daily · warm at 8:00

    Cinnamon Knot

    3,20 €

    Our Zimtknoten — Saigon cinnamon and brown butter, finished with pearl sugar. Never glazed.

  • A slice of bee sting cake with a caramelised honey-almond top and vanilla cream filling Fri – Sun · from 9:00

    Bienenstich, by the slice

    4,60 €

    Honey-almond crackle over vanilla-bean cream on soft yeast dough. Weekends only — whole cakes to order.

  • Coming back in late August

    Zwetschgenkuchen — damson plum cake on yeast dough, baked while the harvest lasts. Whole trays for birthdays, by whispered reservation.

The craft

Four rules we don’t negotiate.

Everything else is flexible — recipes change with the harvest, the shelf changes with the season. These four don’t move.

  • 48 hours, no shortcuts

    Every sourdough rests two nights in the cold. Enzymes do the work; time does the seasoning.

  • Stone-milled, close to home

    Heritage rye and wheat from six family mills in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg — milled slow, traceable to the field.

  • Fire before sunrise

    The stone deck is lit at 3:30 every morning. First loaves land on the shelf at 6:40 — still singing.

  • Nothing to hide

    The bakehouse is open to the café. Flour, water, salt, time — you can watch all four at work.

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Years at the oven
0
Bakes on the shelf daily
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Loaves every week
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Partner mills, all family-run

Kind words

What the neighbourhood says.

  • I moved flats last spring and the first thing I checked was the distance to Hearth & Rye. Their country sourdough has quietly restructured my mornings — I plan meetings around the 6:40 shelf.

    Hannah K.

    Neukölln · regular since 2016

  • They built our wedding “cake” from three tiers of bienenstich, because that’s where we had our first date. Our guests are still talking about it — which is more than we can say for the speeches.

    Mehmet & Aylin D.

    Wedding order · June 2025

  • I time my morning run so I pass Falckensteinstraße at 7:14, one minute before the second baguette batch. If that isn’t a personality trait, I don’t know what is.

    Jonas R.

    Kreuzberg · comes twice a week

  • Three years of daily deliveries and not a single late morning. The vollkornbrot is half our menu’s personality — guests ask for it by name before they sit down.

    Clara W.

    Café owner, Oranienstraße · wholesale partner

The people

The hands behind the hearth.

  • Jonas Berger

    Founder & head baker

    Trained in Freiburg and Copenhagen. Talks to the levain, argues with the oven, wins about half the time.

    Bakes: the dark ryes

  • Mira Sokolov

    Head of pastry

    Runs the lamination table like a flight deck. Owns exactly zero short-cuts and a hundred cake knives.

    Bakes: bienenstich & the layered things

  • Deniz Yilmaz

    Café & community

    Knows the regulars’ orders and most of their dogs’ names. Runs the Saturday baking classes.

    Teaches: Sauerteig 101

Good to know

Questions we hear at the counter.

If yours isn’t here, ring us between batches — we answer the phone while the mixer is off.

Saturday classes are back in September. Sauerteig 101 runs twice a month, 95 € including everything you bake. Bookings by email.

Sourdough lands on the shelf at 6:40 and is at its loudest until about noon. Baguettes come out twice — 7:15 and 12:30. If you shop after 16:00, ask what just left the oven; we bake smaller runs through the afternoon.

Yes — call or email by 14:00 the day before and we’ll set your loaves aside for pickup from 8:00. Whole cakes and bienenstich trays need one week’s notice; wedding and event orders start with a tasting at the counter.

Honest answer: we’re one room full of flour, so we can’t promise a trace-free product. Our vollkornbrot is wheat-free (pure rye) and the long ferment makes it gentler for many — but if you have coeliac disease, we’d rather send you to a dedicated gluten-free bakery than take the risk.

We deliver to a dozen cafés in Kreuzberg and Neukölln before 7:00, six days a week. Wholesale talks start with coffee and a tasting box — write to wholesale@hearthandrye.berlin and tell us about your counter.

Because we bake for the day, not for the week. Every batch is sized to what the neighbourhood usually eats — some days we guess wrong in your favour, some days against it. Reserving the day before removes the lottery entirely.

That’s the idea. Saturday classes cover levain care, shaping, scoring and baking on a home oven — and you take home Lotti’s great-great-granddaughter in a jar. Two sessions a month, eight aprons each, bookable from September.

Visit us

Come say hallo.

Two minutes from Görlitzer Park, under the birch tree with the bread-bag hooks. Follow the smell from 6:30 onwards.

The shop

Falckensteinstraße 12
10997 Berlin — Kreuzberg
Germany

Hours

  • Tue – Fri7:00 – 18:00
  • Saturday7:30 – 16:00
  • Sunday8:00 – 13:00
  • MondayOven rest day
Görlitzer Park Skalitzer Str. Falckensteinstr. Spree Hearth & Rye
Find us in the Wrangelkiez — U1 Görlitzer Bahnhof, then follow the rye smell.

Write to the bench

Cake orders, wedding trays, wholesale or just to say the crust sang — we reply within one working day.

Please tell us your name.
That email doesn’t look quite right.
A few words would help us help you.

Front-end demo form — nothing leaves your browser. In the shop, we’d simply wave you over.