You can tender to a broken heart with Emily Brontë and love sickness with Fenoglio, arrogance with Jane Austen, a headache with Hemingway, impotence with Il bell’Antonio by Vitaliano Brancati, rheumatism with Marcovaldo by Italo Calvino or, on the other hand, you can treat yourself to a massage with Murakami and discover the perfect novel to alleviate solitude or a strong literary tonic to rejuvenate the spirit.

These are the recipes provided in a very special medicine book, a real bible of novelesque therapies, narrative antibiotics and ink and paper medication created and written by two wittily sharp and highly cultivated English authors: Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin in The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies (Penguin 2013).

In this particular case, the shelves aren’t full of books but of extract of deadly nightshade, of mandrake and of laudanum. The spice merchant then began to let the pharmacist get a little bit further ahead when in, 1860, he started preparing ointments and tonics for every possible necessity. Oranien Apotheke was a Pharmacy in the neighbourhood since 1860 before being converted into a restaurant and bar in 2015.
The wood creaks, just like in an old house. Once you enter, you cannot avoid suddenly feeling at ease. The age-old and splendid furnishings of the pharmacy, perfectly preserved with all of their imperfections, the couches and the stools in deep grey leather, the creaking wood of the furniture and the elegant combination of colours evoke a highly intimate environment which is, at the same time, perfect for conviviality. There is also an old chemist’s dresser all around the walls, with pale plates indicating the ingredients used by the spice seller. The little tables are small and square, dark green in colour, with little vases containing one single flower and a candle. The service is polite and the personnel is young and cheerful.

Since 2019, ORA has been run by Emily Harman and Alan Micks: Emily is the managing director, who oversees the business, does the wine
list and trains the staff; Alan is the head Chef and he oversees all the menu/food related areas. “I come from a restaurant background”, says Emily, “and I have been running my own wine consultancy business for over five years now as well as an import wine business that I started last year.

With my business partner Alan Micks, we took over ORA in March 2019, with the view to turn it into a wine bar with an extensive selection of wine that features highly-sought after gems and esoteric lesser known wines. We wanted to create a place where the food was generous and simple, to move away from share plates and fine dining and really offer food that works well with bottles of great wine”.

Alan, Irish-born, was the head chef at the Michelberger Restaurant in Berlin, after he moved to London and cooked at the Lanes-borough, later he moved to WD 50 in New York. He then came back home and he worked for The Merrion Hotel in Dublin. Afterwards, he flew to Australia to the Press Club and to New Zealand.
Today, ORA offers something new to discover: the wine list has a regularly changing by the glass selection and ranges from great value esoteric wines from lesser-known regions and winemakers to highly sought-after fine wines. The kitchen menus change daily and are always based on the produce that arrives every morn- ing. The dishes are seasonal, unpretentious and European. The restaurant menu is a fixed menu of 2-4 courses: starters, mains, cheese and desserts. The bar menu offers light bites, snacks and small plates to share or enjoy solo with a glass of wine or over the course of an evening.