DK (Dachkammer) - Simon-Dach-Str. 41, Friedrichshain and Rex Café - 432 S. Burdick, Kalamazoo, Michigan
http://www.vanishedkalamazoo.com/rex/rex.htm
2001 – . I had just left home and had found myself living in Simon-Dach Strasse. Lost, innocent and unable to fend for myself properly at that stage, I relied on friendly pizza and falafel guys to feed me on weekdays. This café took over the honours on weekends.
Promising a 'Frühstück - Wie bei mutti'* (it had evidently identified its target market pretty accurately), this cosy place was always crammed on weekends with other Berlin newbies. The brunch was pretty standard – bread rolls, cheese, cold meats, muesli and fruit, but I took great comfort that winter from sitting there, drinking Milchkaffee**, eating bowlfuls of vanilla sauce, and speculating about the future while the snow fell. - Roisin 
Brunch was always something I took for granted. Starting in the late 1980s, my undergraduate university years, my habit was to crawl to the Rex Café in uncommon Kalamazoo, Michigan. Yes, Kalamazoo. For the fantastic price of 99 cents, you could get two eggs any style and a couple of slices of toast. It was the perfect response to whatever you did the night before.
By far the most interesting aspect of eating at the Rex, besides the marvelous knicknames given to you by the waitress, were your fellow customers. Or, rather, who your fellow customers were eating with. My ordinary Sunday morning brunch at the Rex was passed with a relatively steady crowd of people I hung out with in the 'Zoo, so that it wasn't often a shocker who went home with whom the night before. The other tables, filled with many familiar faces and members of local rock bands, activist groups, and drug dealers, were often put into unexpected combinations akin to a toy box filled with random pieces from different puzzles. You left feeling strangely satisfied with food, but slightly disturbed by all the new information.
Ach, a part of me is glad those days, and the Rex itself, are gone. The choice for brunching, the spread, and the anonymity of big-city living do have their benefits. - Heidi*Brunch, just like mom's
**coffee with steamed milk, usually served in a bowl-sized cup
