THE ELEPHANT PEOPLE: The Men of Milou

Three young Berliners, Viktor Holter, Jonas Tawam and Rafal Szajgin have started something pretty special in Kreuzberg – called Milou. Milou is more than just an ordinary restaurant and become well known very quickly all over Berlin. Between the three of them, Viktor, Jonas and Rafal have a wealth of experience – working as chefs and barmen in places like KaDeWe, Sage Cocktails, Reingold, Cookies, Lockemuller and also as salesmen for Barcadi.

In addition to running the restaurant (in the very building Jonas grew up in), Viktor, Jonas and Rafal try to integrate locals into their concept by organizing events such as the ‘Christmas bake day,’ where money is raised for and food & presents given to less fortunate children in the area.

„(…) Without wanting to sound cliché, we really believe that the future of a good business is to give back to the community, not because you have to but because you want to. Hopefully in the future that will be something that large companies do more often. We are happy to support Elephant Gin for the same reason. They are giving a decent percentage of their profits to a charity they believe in, so that to us makes sense.“

In Milou’s bar and restaurant locally sourced produce play an important role. “When someone orders something here, whether it is meat or wine or even a spirit like Elephant Gin, we want to know the story behind it, where and how it is made. We want to be able to inform our customers about everything that is on their plate or in their glass.“ And taking this even further, Viktor, Jonas and Rafal make a good amount of their own ingredients in-house: from grinding their own oats for fresh muesli or making their own syrups for cocktails.

Just like the restaurant, the bar is equally inviting and attracting a quickly growing crowd. “Monday night is basically an industry night, we invite barman from many different clubs around Berlin to drop in and do guest bartending. It has been great to see people get into that and show off new cocktails!