In 1997, MAOTHAI am Fasanenplatz was created on Meierottostraße. The restaurant was housed in a magnificent turn-of-the-century building near Ludwigkirchplatz and the Schaubühne theatre.
Until 1933, Heinrich Mann had been among its residents. Zarah Leander ran an artists' boarding house there; later, Sabine Christiansen lived in the top floor apartment. In the former Café Cristal, West Berlin's social elite had gathered in the 1970s and 80s — it was said that even in the height of summer, snowstorms raged there.
The restaurant soon became a social gathering place once again — this time for diplomats, artists, international guests and the Berlin scene. Kasit Piromya, who would later become Thailand's Foreign Minister, frequently received his visitors there.
The opening also carried a symbolic significance. West German visitors to the East Berlin flagship had repeatedly remarked with arrogance: "Surely your roots are in the West." All too often after 1989, West German companies had taken over former GDR businesses and turned them into branch offices. It was precisely for this reason that this restaurant was created in the heart of one of West Berlin's finest neighbourhoods. And to make the matter perfectly clear, I now officially added "Stammhaus" (Flagship) to the name of the restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg.
