Nothing captures this place better than the note on a note next to the door: “Cash payment only.” It’s familiar from Munich bars and is usually annoying, but the “Hopfendolde” in Schwabing really doesn’t fit a card reader. Wherever? Certainly not in the hands of the older lady who shows you where to sit with a finger and a few incomprehensible words.
The benches are covered in stickers, the corners and posts are worn, the ceiling is paneled with dark wood. Next to the entrance there is an old piano with an old radio on it pushed against the wall. An electric dart board flashes and two one-armed bandits rattle, but only the older waitress plays them every now and then that evening. Everything fits together wonderfully here.
The winter semester has begun in the iconic Hopfendolde, which means that it quickly fills up with students, even on a Wednesday evening. Young guys and girls in jeans and sweaters or even tracksuits. You can’t see any shirt collars. Everything is rather informal and relaxed. It’s not just freshmen who come here to get to know each other over one, two or five glasses of light beer (house beer: Memminger), there are just as many people over 30 sitting around and talking loudly across the group tables. Because one thing should be clear: the hop umbel is fun with several people, so it’s better to look for another place for a date for two.
The “Dive Bar” label goes well with the hop umbel. These are dingy, decidedly lackluster bars where the beer is cheap and the lights are dimmed. Such bars draw their appeal from the feeling of authenticity, a kind of effortlessness. The hop umbel is already growing, stuck somewhere in the 2000s Homepage with great serenity. Every spelling mistake (“Our service miracle”) brings nothing but joy. She also advertises her well-known karaoke there on brown ground, every Thursday and Sunday from 8 p.m. to half past twelve with DJ Daniel and singer Sylvia.
Cigarettes are available from the vending machine in the Hopfendolde and people smoke in front of the door.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
The hop umbel is fun with several people, but it’s better to look for another place for a date for two.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
0.4 liters of Helles cost three euros, the Mass costs seven, less than half of this year’s Oktoberfest price. There are no snacks, but wine, schnapps and long drinks. When asked if there were cocktails, the waitress replied: “Yes, Tequila Sunrise?” – “Um.” – “Tequila Sunrise.” She nods and rushes off again; that was probably the house’s recommendation. The woman also has to bring six beer bottles to the next table.
Of course, there are still the toilets that are full of grease, where you can pull condoms out of the machine and where the mirror is covered up so that you can’t see anything in it. Cigarettes are also available from the vending machine and people smoke in front of the door. And last but not least, the music: There are a surprising number of televisions hanging around that, according to the map, not only broadcast “all sports,” but also music videos, none of which were released after 2010. Run it Aerosmith “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, Rihanna “Hate That I Love You” and Take That “Everything Changes”.
At the end you leave the Hopfendolde with a silent request: keep this place as old-fashioned as possible – and never introduce card payments.
Hop umbel, Feilitzschstraße 17, 80802 Munich, telephone: 089/333622. Opening hours: 11 a.m. to 5 a.m. every day