Festsaal Kreuzberg is a former ballroom on the Arena complex by the Spree, hosting indie, electronic and experimental concerts in a raw industrial hall with a 1,000-capacity standing floor.
Tip: Despite the name the room sits in Treptow, not Kreuzberg; U Schlesisches Tor or S Treptower Park are both walkable.
Address: Am Flutgraben 2, 12435 Berlin
Privatclub fills the old Schlesisches-Tor post office basement with newcomer bookings, alternative DJ nights and small touring shows on Skalitzer Strasse between Goerlitzer Park and the Spree.
Tip: Capacity is small (around 300); buy ahead for buzz acts. The bar runs cash plus card.
Klunkerkranich runs since 2013 on the top parking deck of the Neukoelln Arcaden mall, with a wraparound view across south Berlin, a small stage, food carts and DJs through the warm months.
Tip: Take the library/post lift to the 5th floor of the mall, then climb one flight. Bad weather closes the deck; check the program first.
Monkey Bar sits on the tenth floor of the 25hours Hotel Bikini with a 250-square-metre room and a terrace overlooking Berlin Zoo, the Gedaechtniskirche and the Tiergarten canopy.
Tip: Queues build after 19:00; weeknight afternoons get the terrace. The signature cocktail is the Berliner Luft.
Solar sits on the 16th and 17th floors of an anonymous Kreuzberg tower near Anhalter Bahnhof; a glass lift on the outside delivers guests to a panoramic cocktail lounge and an upstairs restaurant.
Tip: The free lift is the entry; queue at the ground-floor entrance after 21:00. Cocktails skew classic; the restaurant upstairs takes OpenTable.
The Rocco Forte Hotel de Rome on Bebelplatz opens its sixth-floor terrace through the warm months, with views over the State Opera, Berliner Dom and the TV Tower over champagne and wood-fired pizza.
Tip: Open seasonally, May to early autumn. Book ahead on warm evenings; non-guests welcome.
Buck and Breck on Brunnenstrasse has run an unmarked Mitte cocktail bar since 2010 with 14 seats around one counter and a classic, pre-Prohibition list led by the cognac-and-champagne house drink.
Tip: Ring the bell at the unmarked black storefront; reservations only via email. Two seatings nightly from 19:00.