Look, an Austrian bar in Munich, that’s also hip and without Schrammel music and Heurigen songs from tapes or black-and-white photos of Hans Moser on the wall. Stefan Grabler, 30, and Markus Hirschler, 31, have now opened the “Waltz” inn after they had a pop-up restaurant in the “S-Room” on the corner of Baaderstraße for a few months.
The Waltz is now permanently at home at Ickstattstrasse 13, where the French restaurant “St. Laurent” used to be. 55 seats, a small bar, light wood on the walls and in the furniture, stylish lamps and otherwise simple decoration – this is what a modern pub looks like these days. The focus at the Waltz is primarily on good wines in different price ranges.
That makes sense, after all, before they started their own business, the two Austrians, Grabler and Hirschler, ran the “Grapes” wine bar in the “Cortiina” boutique hotel for almost six years and made a name for themselves among Munich wine fans. Mainly Austrian and German winegrowers, often hardly known and producing organically, they had on the menu; they had discoveries to make. It should stay that way, even if they have expanded the selection to include France, a little bit of Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and Spain.
Their wine cellar includes 850 positions, the wine list has become an impressive book in which you can find beautiful classics, but also much less well-known ones. 22 wines from it, which is unusual in Munich gastronomy, are also available by the glass.
The chef comes from Lower Bavaria
However, drinking alone will not fill you up, at least that is to be hoped. And in the Gasthaus Waltz there is also excellent Austrian tavern cuisine. From boiled beef, pumpkin seed granola dumplings, rainbow trout and fried chicken with lamb and potato salad to curd dumplings and pancakes (with Mama Grabler’s strawberry jam); a four-course menu for 60 euros is also on the menu.
The head chef is 28-year-old Alex Gaßlbauer, whose only drawback is that he’s not Austrian, but a Lower Bavarian from Bad Birnbach. Anyone who thinks that’s a flaw should stop by and be proven wrong, because: “Alex cooks just the way we want it to,” says Markus Hirschler.
In any case, the guests at the opening party on Wednesday evening obviously liked it. The audience is roughly in the age group of the operators. Some gastro professionals were also among them, such as Sabine Eichbauer from “Tantris” or multi-restaurateur Marc Uebelherr (including “Schreiberei”, “Oh Julia”, “Koi”, “Oskar Maria”), which raises the question of whether he is also involved is, at the inn Waltz? “No,” he says with a laugh, “I simply appreciate down-to-earth, good cuisine in a restaurant run by young people with a passion for hospitality.”
You can leave it as is for now. The question remains why the inn is called Waltz? “There are several reasons,” says Stefan Grabler, “first, as a craftsman, you go waltzing, and as an Austrian, you don’t have to stick to German spelling. Second, waltz is called waltz in English, and then there’s that Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, whom we both admire very much”.
Maybe Christoph Waltz will stop by on the way back from the next Oscars? In any case, one thing is certain: It doesn’t always have to be just Hans Moser.