A young man asks in poor Spanish whether you are also from the regulars of his language course. “Level B1, you too?” Unfortunately no. “You can still sit in on that!” he asks, adjusts his flat cap, grins and then disappears back into the crowd of his Spanish colleagues who are occupying the back half of the bar this evening.
That’s how it works here, in the Old Oven. If you couldn’t find a place, no problem, just sit down. Or you drink your first beer at the bar and let your gaze wander through the packed bar: on the right there is an older couple playing cards. In the corner of the sofa by the door there is a birthday group that sings to the embarrassed birthday child Simon every few minutes. And a new member of the Spanish class keeps coming in the door with a loud “Hola.”
The Alte Ofen is a pub that doesn’t often exist in Maxvorstadt anymore. It stands out from the well-known trendy bars at the university – just because of the address towards the residential area on Josephsplatz, but above all because of its down-to-earthness: the prices are fair (4 euros for a light or glass of white wine, 7 euros for that Aperol), the selection of drinks is not necessarily new. But if you like chic hipster cocktails, you’ve come to the wrong place anyway. There is warm cuisine with great schnitzel expertise: as a chef you first have to come up with six different types of breading – peanut, hazelnut, curry, sweet mustard, cornflakes and as a highlight: parmesan (each between 13.50 and 15 euros). Of the meat-free dishes, the tarte flambée with vegetables is particularly recommended (12 euros).
The bar has been around since 1973. At that time, the owner opened it on Schellingstrasse, but just five years later the oven was about to be moved to where it is today, at Zieblandstrasse 41. The house on Schellingstrasse was demolished. Another two decades later, in the mid-1990s, Susanne Iglesias, the owner’s daughter, took over the Old Oven – she is still the boss today.
The old oven that the pub is named after actually exists.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
Stickers, always stickers.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels – it almost looks as if the two clay busts are kissing.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
The bar’s furnishings are a bit like something out of a hidden object book, colorful, humorous, probably accumulated since the 1970s, especially the actually old Art Nouveau oven. Profiles of the employees hang on the walls. “What did you always look forward to before a shift?” is written there, for example, and the cooks, permanent employees and student assistants answer with everything from: “To the dear colleagues” to “to the locking up”. You can hardly decipher the wanted posters in this light. The lighting is dimmed, and someone has folded scraps of paper around the light bulbs hanging from an old power cord so that the light appears warmer and more subtle.
A table became free in the back corner. You sit between the Spanish course and a piano covered in 1860s football stickers. Above the bar are two clay busts of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which someone has turned towards each other as if they were about to have their first kiss. You can hardly get enough of the guests, the furnishings, little new details keep popping up. And if things do get boring, the Spanish regulars’ table will definitely welcome everyone into its ranks.
Old ovenZieblandstraße 41, 80798 Munich, telephone: 089/527527, opening hours: daily from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m.