Kanye West Relaxing Alone with Salad

Why wasn’t Kanye West at the 2018 Grammys last night? Although West wasn’t nominated for any awards (he hasn’t released an album since 2016’s The Life of Pablo, although a slew of Happy Kanye Entering Studio with Laptop photos indicate that new music might be on its way), and although his daughter Chicago West was born just two weeks ago, fans expected to see him on the red carpet anyway—the Grammys are better with him there.

But West had heeded the call to go East: all the way to East Berlin, where he dined solo on Saturday night at waterfront restaurant Grill Royal (“It’s a romantic restaurant with an amazing wine cellar!”, raves one Yelp reviewer). Paparazzi photos, and an accompanying video, show that West appeared to chat on speakerphone while he ate something green.

The video shows a soccer scarf emblazoned with “BERGHAIN” hanging on the wall, watching over the empty restaurant; a taxidermied eagle broods over West’s left shoulder. It seemed like a pretty nice night for him, reminiscent of the strange, delicious free time you get after arriving in a half-familiar city and hearing that a friend is running late to pick you up. No one knows who you are here, and that special excuse for loneliness is liberating. With paparazzi crowding outside the restaurant, this chilled-out solo meal might be the closest West can get to that feeling.

On the same day, West also shopped at the Berlin outpost of the Soho House with Off-White designer (and his former creative director) Virgil Abloh, staring down a certain ubiquitous bucket bag by a brand whose name rhymes with Shmansur Shmavriel, and checked out some tomato-red Champion shorts. Behind a rack of clothes, a Soho House patron nonchalantly observed the group while munching on a slice of cake.

Like Jil Sander, they also stopped at McDonald’s.