Some work hard, others sip their cappuccino: In the Neulinger bakery in Sendling, guests share the room with the bakers. The open bakery determines the scenery. Watching bakers bake – that goes perfectly with the no-frills breakfast that you can get here.
The machines roar from the back of the bakery, the whole room is filled with constant rumbling, from time to time there are loud beeps. Nevertheless, the voices of the bakers can be heard doing their work in a good mood, and sometimes someone even sings. With all the bread-baking idyll, you just don’t want to think about when the day started for the people dressed in white.
Only a plexiglass pane separates the sales room from the work surface.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Professions that do not require a laptop or online conferences trigger nostalgic feelings in many people anyway. And that’s how it is when you look into the bakery: mounds of dough are lifted out of vats, work surfaces are dusted with flour, things are kneaded, stirred and shaped. Only a pane of Plexiglas stands between the guests and the workplace where bread, pretzels and rolls are made.
The large window front lets a lot of light into the simply designed sales room. Not only the background noise, but also the interior of the bakery is reminiscent of a chic factory room: floor in concrete look, heavy stage spotlights above the counter and simple round wooden tables. The guest orders at the counter and carries his breakfast to his seat on a tray. The fact that all the industrial charm doesn’t give rise to any hipster feelings is because the bakery trade doesn’t seem staged at all here.
There are still only a few tables in the café, but that should change soon.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
They don’t want to fool anyone, they want to be authentic, says owner and master baker Ludwig Neulinger. That’s why the aprons of the bakers can get dirty and dough can stick to their arms: “It’s just the way it is.” The customers should see how things work in a bakery. The open design was his idea, and he implemented it in Sendling around five years ago.
Organic ingredients are particularly important to him, says Neulinger. Conventional bakeries are allowed to choose from a pool of 198 additives for their bread – he doesn’t want to eat them himself. When he became self-employed twenty years ago and opened his first bakery, he quickly removed the baking mixes from the range. He now has five branches in Munich and is proud that his bread and rolls carry the Bioland seal. The four shops in Haidhausen, Neuhausen and in the Schlachthof district all get their products from the bakery in Sendling.
The counter is well stocked and there is a large selection of cakes.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Baking is done every day until lunchtime. Those who come later miss the singing bakers, but can drink their coffee in peace, undisturbed by the noise of the kneading machines.
What is there and how much does it cost?
There is no menu with a large selection, but four breakfasts that are chalked on the wall. The French breakfast includes croissants, butter and jam (for 2.50 euros), the small breakfast includes a bread basket with two rolls, butter, jam and egg (4.50 euros), the Vital breakfast includes two grain rolls, various types of cheese and muesli , honey, butter and a small orange juice (8.90 euros) and the large breakfast consists of a bread basket with two rolls and a croissant or brioche, homemade nougat cream, jam, butter, egg, ham, cheese and a small orange juice (10.90 Euro). Coffee is ordered separately, it comes from the Munich roastery Fausto and is skilfully decorated with latte art.
Table space is a bit tight if there are two of you. And the trays also have to be temporarily stored somewhere, a bit inelegant. So it’s not a fancy affair, instead it’s clearly about the essentials: good food and, above all, good bread. The guests choose the rolls themselves, there is a large selection here. They’re so delicious you’ll want to eat them with just butter.
Lots on the plate, little space on the table: the vital breakfast (left) and the big breakfast.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
If you want to choose something sweet from the counter, the managing director Gabriele Kiesewetter recommends the particularly popular “cheese flatbread”. A huge cheesecake, “really fluffy and delicious”. At noon there is lunch.
The food is fresh and of good quality. The plates are colorfully garnished with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Who do you meet there?
“It’s important to us that we’re simply the baker in the district where the people of Sendling buy their rolls,” says Gabriele Kiesewetter. She looks forward to putting more tables and chairs in the café again as soon as the pandemic situation allows. Then it will be easier again to find space with a larger group. The Neulinger bakery is also ideal for a short stopover in the morning with a good coffee and something small from the counter.
But even if you opt for the big breakfast, where a lot is put on the table, you won’t leave the Neulinger bakery as clumsy and overfed as other breakfast places: you take with you the feeling of pleasant activity that emanates from the working bakers home – as well as some flour dust on the coat.
Newcomer Bread & Fine BakeryGrotzinger Straße 48, 81317 Munich, opening hours: Monday to Saturday 6.30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays and public holidays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m