A restaurant in a museum: Unless the number of visitors is limited due to the pandemic, that should be something like a safe bet, especially in a successful house.

One could assume so.

But it's not always like that.

Sometimes the concept and the needs of the guests do not match, sometimes the opening times of the restaurateur and the wishes of the landlord do not match, sometimes there are problems with the premises, or, as is so often the case in life, the chemistry between the people involved is not right.

Jacqueline Vogt

Department head of the Rhein-Main editorial team of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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A lot has already happened in the Schirn Café in Frankfurt, the restaurant that belongs to the Schirn Kunsthalle, that can contribute to gastronomic success and a lot that can prevent it.

As if in an endless loop, stories of success, failure and disputes, carried out with different tenants, lined up at this place, the first being the caterer Klaus Peter Kofler.

Badia Ouahi has been running the Schirn Café since 2015, which had previously been empty for a long time.

Since then, the woman, who broke into the hospitality industry with cooking nights at a makeshift restaurant in the Bahnhofsviertel and with a catering company popular in the art world, has made it a popular hangout.

She once said that she didn't apply for the establishment, but was asked if she wanted to run it.

Whoever did this, they had a good idea.

A feel-good place in the middle of Frankfurt

The "Badias im Schirn Café", as the establishment is now called, is an all-round friendly place, appropriate for a modern museum, with a moderately stylish design;

not conservative, but also not designed in such a way that not everyone could feel comfortable there.

The food is predominantly Israeli-Arabic, with many well-seasoned sauces and dips (top: the tomato salsa, the baba ghanoush), little meat and fish, and vegetable dishes such as baked cauliflower with coriander and sesame cream (dishes up to around 24 euros).

Also worth trying are the briquettes filled with white cheese with mint and dates (Moroccan cigars) and the pastries in the afternoon (good carrot cake).

Very friendly service, wine list with decent whites at friendly prices.

Conclusion: to feel good in the middle of the city.

Badias in the Schirn Kunsthalle, Römerberg 6a in Frankfurt.

Telephone: 0 69 / 29 72 36 99. Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m.

Monday rest day.