Joey Passarella from Louis Pretty cooking at FvF

I have known Joey for a long time, we worked together at Nosh in Prenzlauer berg over a decade ago.

We would argue on a daily basis and he would kick me out of his kitchen but our tempers at work did not influence our friendship and respect for each other.

Julien and Joey taking a break

After completing his cooking school in NYC, he moved to Berlin and worked in various restaurants such as Spindler&Klatt, Grill Royal as a sous-Chef and then moved on to the famous first Berlin Deli "Mogg&Melzer" on August Straße in the Jüdische Mädchenschule where he could use his New Yorker identity to create the recipes which made this Deli THE place to eat Pastrami in Berlin.

As they went separate ways, Joey joined Oskar Melzer to set up Maxie Eisen in Frankfurt and Louis Pretty on Ritterstraße 2 in Kreuzberg, open since February 2016.

The signature dish remains the pastrami sandwich which made their Mitte location popular throughout the city.

On that Wednesday, I was invited to photograph Joey and Julian from Louis Pretty while making lunch for the team from Freunde von Freunden (FvF), to present their "Thursday Dinners" events starting at the end of August at Louis Pretty's.

Joey will design a 3-4 course menu, offering a different setting at the Deli's in the evenings than during the day. The menu will be seasonal using local and organic products but will also highlight collaborations such as Fritz Blomeyer's cheese or Sonnenreich Weine.

On today's menu we had:

Sandwich:

Broiled salmon salad with buttermilk pickled cucumber and dill

Main:

Flank Steak, Jalapenos, chimichurri sauce and fried onions

Salad:

Rucola salad, raspberries, parmesan chips, roasted peanuts and a

raspberries dressing

Dessert:

Caramelized peaches with chocolate mousse

Salmon sandwich

Steak

Served on the board

Seasoned raspberries for the salad withcrispy parmesan chips, rocket salad and nuts

Peaches

Ashley

Team lunch in the courtyard. A trea!

Check out the recipes on the article at FvF. It was a great day, the food was delicious and I'll make sure to be there on Thursdays as well as for their Sunday Brunch.