Finding a traditional Berlin-style döner in Colorado has never been easy, said chef Niko Diamantopoulos, who launched his concept Berliner Haus as a pop-up and food truck at the beginning of the year. But now, Diamantopoulos has brought the restaurant into Avanti Denver, making the aforementioned dish and other Mediterranean-style street food items from the region readily accessible.
“There’s a few places that I think have tried to do döner kebab versions, but literally they’ve just taken a gyro, added red cabbage to it, and called it döner,” said Diamantopoulos. “But this is something very unique and specific to Turkish food that became popular in Germany, because even the Turkish döners served at a lot of halal restaurants have nothing to do with this.”
Döner in Turkey, he explained, is basically the meat from a rotisserie sliced and made into a sandwich. But this version, the German döner kebab, dates back decades to the area and the influx of Turkish workers in the city. While the invention of the döner kebab consists of different origin stories, most data has the sandwich dating back to around the 1960s and 1970s. In essence, the dish became a popular fast food and the way it’s made remains consistent across the histories.
“Germans call it their street food, so that’s why we call [Berliner Haus] German street food even though it’s a Turkish-German mix,” explained the chef. “Döner is the most popular street food in Berlin and most of Europe at this point, and Berlin has over 1,000 döner shops just in the city.”
No matter how kebab came to be, for Diamantopoulos it’s more about bringing something he loved to eat to the restaurant scene in Denver. Sticking to tradition, the sandwich at Berliner Haus uses a fluffy Turkish flatbread called pide, or fladenbrot, which Diamantopoulos sources from a German baker in New York City. It’s sturdy and buttery, and topped with sesame seeds to give it a bit of nuttiness.
Inside the döner kebab you’ll find a plethora of fresh vegetable salad piled on top of your choice of a rotisserie beef and lamb mix, chicken, or falafel. Each comes slathered with white garlic sauce and/or a mild red chili sauce. The two-hand sandwiches offer plenty of food for one or even two. Don’t make the mistake of eating this in a car, you need a table and a lot of napkins.
While Berliner Haus in Avanti just opened up last September, Diamantopoulos has run his business in some capacity for years. He has always been into food and cooking, inspired by his late father who crafted a world of dishes at home.
The chef’s real entry into making his own meals happened in college while attending CU Boulder. Not one for the lackluster food court available at the time, Diamantopoulos started reading recipes meant for the microwave. That was almost 20 years ago, and he never left Colorado or the kitchen since college.
Born and raised in Greece, Diamantopoulos got his first taste of Berlin culture as a teen when he would visit with a friend there. Both were big skateboarders, and it was after a heavy day of skating when he discovered the joy of döner. The food stuck with him, and though other food projects came and went he kept doing the German street food on the side. But all that changed last year with the beginning of the annual Denver Christkindlmarket when Diamantopoulos debuted Berliner Haus.
“It just took off, and I was literally sending people to different cities by car, 10 hours of driving, just to get ingredients,” he said. “People were like, ‘Where can I find this,” and I was like, maybe this should be more than a side project.”
After the market ended at the beginning of 2026, Diamantopoulos took the profits he had made and went in on a food truck. The idea, he explained, was to keep the concept true to what he knew about German-Turkish street food, and add a fun but clean design to the business. Inspired by the Bauhaus style of architecture, he created a logo featuring the Metro map of Berlin filled with the colors and shapes from the art movement.
At first Diamantopoulos remained weary of opening a brick-and-mortar location. However, pushed by his longtime employee Jason, he agreed to keep an ear out for a hole-in-the-wall sort of deal. While Avanti doesn’t quite fit that description, when Bowls By Ko left a couple months ago the space turned out to be just what he wanted.
“I’m a Greek person serving a Turkish dish that became popular in Germany to Americans in the states,” he mused, sharing one of his favorite customer appreciation stories. “One guy comes back just covered in sauce, and he’s like, ‘That’s the best eff’ing thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. That’s literally all he said, and he was sober. I like that, and that’s the real kicker for me.”
Aside from döner kebab sandwiches, the menu also features döner kebab salads, loaded fries with döner kebab, fries with feta, freshly made baklava, custard pie, stuffed dates, and an array of dips with pita and vegetables. It’s easy, approachable, and the only way to get this sort of fare outside of Avanti is by following Berliner Haus’ food truck trek. Which, added Diamantopoulos, is still going strong. Lucky for us we know where to get a fix, even if the truck resides far away.
Visit Berliner Haus Monday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 3200 N. Pecos St., Denver, berlinerhausdenver.com
