Mobel-Olfe gay bar, by the Kottbusser Tor subway station

You won't find many bars out there with quirkier locations than Mobel-Olfe (Reichenbergerstrasse 177), which occupies the ground floor of a defunct mid-rise furniture store that's surrounded by Turkish-immigrant apartment blocks - the bar is just outside the northwest side of the Kottbusser Tor (U) subway station, and it's a tiny bit challenging to find. Best just to ask around, or bumble around until you spy a crowd of hipsters, slackers, artists, and bohemians mingling outside the bar's front door. Through large windows you can view the endearingly weird interior, which includes everything from a display of crappy old armchairs installed at a sharp angle high on a platform above the room to a human skeleton crowned with a cow skull.

Drinks are inexpensive and doled out in large portions, the music tends toward indie and alternative, and the crowd is a remarkably friendly (if self-consciously trendy) mix of women and men, most of them under 30 - but eclecticism rules here, from the decor to the crowd. It's a fun spot early in the evening right on into the wee hours, with a vibe that's just as inviting for friends in conversation as it is for singles on the make, although Mobel-Olfe is a huge departure from the cruisy-scene-y bars in Schoenberg around Nollendorfplatz. For its singular style and unassumingly funny sensibility, Mobel-Olfe deserves major props - it's completely worth the effort required to find this place. Just a block north, you'll find the countercultural Oranienstrasse strip, which has a few other notable gay-ish bars.