Heading home to your Miniloft in that netherland between night and day, the smiling potato with the backwards baseball cap is there to save you from your hunger. Tom's Fritten (Berliner for french fries, of course) serves hand-cut, hand-made fries out of its cheerful truck.

Don't be fooled by the hum-drum exterior on a busy street: La Galleria Italiana, a homey little hole in the wall with 30 seats, serves tasty homemade pastas and other delectable delicacies. It's another great addition to the roster of good restaurants within walking distance of Miniloft.

Celebrate the crisp days and glorious colors of fall by dancing the night away in the beloved Clärchens Ballhaus, at the "Großer Herbstball". The ballroom extravaganza rings in the glories of the cold seasons (which are, of course, the best time to dance at Clärchens).

Direktorenhausis in a beautiful old building on the Spree, now a huge new art space. It utilizes the total space to build an atmospheric framework to explore the different elements of art, craft, design and performance.

Where once there was only Popkomm, now there is Berlin Music Week, as the music industry consolidates to create a vast 7-day program for music lovers and industry folks.

The Berlin Philharmonie's lovely lunchtime concert series has started again: every Tuesday at 13:00, they present a chamber concert, absolutely free of charge.

Wine and art: a natural pairing. While the free plastic cups of cheap red omnipresent at every gallery opening are always welcome, this weekend the VDP Prädikatsweingüter (German winemakers association) will offer up some classier vintages.

Berlin's beloved minimal techno is great and all, but it can be a bit, well, soulless. If you're feeling the urge to move your hips and really get down and dance, to actual songs, Soul Explosion is the answer: raw, hard funk from obscure original singles, accompanied by video projections with a psychedelic mix of dance scenes and Blaxploitation films.

While many Berlin clubs and galleries are shuttered this month for their well-earned summer breaks, the superb international dance festival Tanz im August fills the cultural void with a two-week program of diverse contemporary dance.

In lazy summer, a trip out to one of Berlin's many lovely lakes is the perfect day trip. The lake Schlachtensee is smaller and more intimate than the nearby Wannsee, with wooded banks, grassy knolls, and clean waters; it's easily accessible by public transport.