From a gastronomic point of view, “Fräulein Wagner” makes you think of a grandma’s café. But that’s completely wrong. Because Fräulein Wagner is not only a great ancestor of the Augustiner brewery, but also the name of the pub in the youth and family hotel Augustin above the Theresienwiese, right next to the Bavaria. And on Thursday, a mere three years late, it celebrated its grand opening as a restaurant, not just for the district.
The reason for this is of course Corona. Because the Augustin was actually finished in the summer of 2019: A really nice hotel for young people and families, where the room prices start at 40 euros – where else can you find something like that in Munich? Strictly speaking, it was only possible thanks to Fraulein Wagner. Namely Edith Haberland-Wagner, the last heir of the Wagner brewing dynasty. She herself only became the owner of Augustiner in 1981 at the age of 82 and had no one to bequeath the brewery to. And so, in 1996, shortly before her death, she founded a foundation that still holds a little more than 50 percent of Augustiner and invests the proceeds in the protection of monuments, the preservation of customs, environmental protection and the promotion of young people, among other things.
Fits together wonderfully in this place, said the head of the Edith Haberland Wagner Foundation, Catherine Demeter, on Thursday evening at the presentation of the new Miss Wagner. Because on the area behind the Bavaria is not only the villa that was built for the 1908 world exhibition and which is now the headquarters of the foundation, but also the old, listed congress hall from the 1950s and the Bavariapark inn. All now owned by the Foundation. The new building of the Hotel Augustin was only the keystone, so to speak. It was created in 2019 on the area that “for many years had only been used as a makeshift parking lot,” says Demeter, “where the rats celebrated happy parties.”
The rats had to move, because now there is a modern, partly copper-clad and yet simple-looking new building that contains around 200 rooms of different sizes. There is also a beautiful, well-kept garden and, of course, the Fräulein Wagner restaurant with 130 seats. It was only open during the day for a few months before the first lockdown came. And as soon as you wait for a pandemic, there is already a slight change of concept and tenants, sometimes also a slightly modified interior. “In the meantime, we’ve also been able to learn what works and what doesn’t,” says the foundation’s second director, Martin Liebhäuser, “and because Miss Wagner is now also open in the evenings, we took that as an opportunity to present everything again.”
The culinary concept: international dishes with regional products
Even two real Bavarian ministers wanted to see that, Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann and Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (both CSU) and Wiesn city councilor Anja Berger (Greens). Herrmann is already an official permanent guest at the annual reception before the start of the Wiesn in the nearby foundation villa and is therefore there, “because I have no official reason to intervene today”. The same applied to Eisenreich, who was invited as a local member of the state parliament. And of course a Wiesn city councilor shouldn’t be missing when a brewery as dominated by women as Augustiner – since 1844 women have had the last word here again and again – invites you to celebrate.
The kitchen has now been taken over by Munich’s luxury caterer Dahlmann, who otherwise cooks for large international corporations or at the Salzburg Festival and who has since moved from Petuelring to Bavaria Park. “We now have our production kitchen in the basement,” says boss Ulrich Dahlmann, “and we’re also responsible for Miss Wagner’s menu.”
Chef Gideon Huth, who can already look back on some experience in Michelin-starred kitchens, describes them like this: “We work with regional products and use them to prepare international dishes.” After all, there is a Bavarian tavern with a beer garden right around the corner, and so you will find on the menu, for example, “Carpaccio of young organic kohlrabi” with chestnuts and black truffles or stewed eggplant with hummus and pomegranate. But the head chef has another justification: “Miss Wagner was really a great traveller. That should be reflected on the menu.”