Casino-Eck is a corner pub in the Kapitolviertel, a short walk from the Heumarkt U-Bahn station, run by the same two owners since 2008. It calls itself the Kölsche Veedelskneipe, the neighbourhood bar of the old town, and its own welcome line is direct: whatever your age, hetero, lesbian, gay or trans, everyone is treated the same here.
The room is small and close-knit, decorated with Kölsch memorabilia and strings of lights over the entrance, and it fills up for a run of themed evenings through the year, a Maifest, a Hollandabend, an Oktoberfest night, a costume ball, a Nikolaus evening and a Travestieshow among them. The pub has been going for close to two decades and marks its anniversary every June.
During Christopher Street Day weekend it prints its own rainbow-coloured opening-hours poster and keeps extended hours across the Friday to Sunday. Cash only.
The people in this picture are AI-generated.
