A tavern wants to have as many guests as possible, that’s clear. But they would like to welcome one guest in particular, say the three hosts: “Gerhard Polt – that would be a dream!” For Daniel Pietsch, Oscar Schlehaider and Konstantin Schottenhamel, the cabaret artist and snack philosopher (“Cosiness, that’s the relationship between time, money and beer”) is the idol par excellence when it comes to pub culture. It is not for nothing that the company that operates her own tavern is named after an early radio play by Polt: “Dachs im Bau GmbH”.
Your own tavern is the venerable Max Emanuel Brewery at Adalbertstraße 33. The property has been extensively renovated for a good two years. The fact that it must have been quite a struggle can possibly be deduced from the technical term “general renovation”. Dachs im Bau GmbH then won the tender for the lease.
The beer garden is already busy again.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
In any case, the time has come: The beer garden, accessible from Nordendstraße, has been open again for a week. There are brand new beer table sets that could do with a bit of patina, the Löwenbräu Mass in an iced beer mug. It is iced because the glass jug is cooled to minus 20 degrees before it is poured. “The mass stays cool much longer,” says Oscar Schlehaider. There are around 500 seats in the beer garden.
The garden map lists all the required standards, but also has something to offer for specialists. For example the spare ribs in the St. Louis cut, i.e. from the meatier, thick ribs from the middle part of the belly. Or an “Obazda burger” and the “Schnapsbratwurst”, directly from a butcher in Bamberg. “But the best seller at the moment is our vegan Zürcher Waldpilz-Schnetzeltes,” says chef Daniel Pietsch. Sure, vegan goes well in the student district around the university.
There are many allusions to traditional tavern culture
In about two to four weeks the actual tavern will open; at the moment there is still a problem with the power supply from the public utility company. Most things have happened inside, the interior designer Caroline Rauh has completely redesigned the tavern and hall: light wood and lush green prevail, there are always subtle allusions to the traditional tavern culture, be it with wood carvings on the wall or a heatable, large area tiled stove wall.
And there are many different seating areas and areas that make almost anything possible, from regulars’ tables to company parties. Nevertheless, the guest rooms appear modern and of high quality. The three bosses also procured individual pieces of furniture from antique dealers. “We wanted real, original tavern chairs and we got two here and three there,” says Konstantin Schottenhamel, “and I still remember seeing 15 at once from a retailer. Of course we were blown away away!”
The inn interior should be open to guests in a few weeks.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
The enthusiasm about their own tavern, the attention to detail and the great anticipation that things are about to get going really cannot be overlooked with the three of them. And although they are still young – Schottenhamel and Schlehaider are 30 and have known each other since school, Pietsch is 32 – they are already old hands in the gastro scene. Schottenhamel is the son of Wiesn host Michael F. Schottenhamel from the marquee of the same name, which has been at the Oktoberfest for more than 150 years.
In recent years he has already been an authorized officer in the marquee company, this year he is also being run as an innkeeper for the first time, together with his father and his cousin Christian Schottenhamel. Oscar Schlehaider is his school friend, did an apprenticeship in an event agency and now has the “Lucky Who” club. Daniel Pietsch is a chef and was, among other things, head saucer in the two-star restaurant of the delicatessen Dallmayr. From there he also knows the future restaurant manager in the Max Emanuel Brewery, Barbara Engelbrecht. She was already head of service at Dallmayr and at the three-star restaurant Atelier des Bayerischen Hofs.
Premier League, so to speak. But the three of them don’t want to go into the fine dining area, as you might think. “I would like to offer our guests original Bavarian dishes that are impressive and taste like grandma’s,” says head chef Pietsch and laughs, “we won’t have nut butter dust with tomato air.” Many tavern classics should be on the menu, but also heart and sweetbreads from veal or a “Viennese fried chicken in the classic version with the thigh cut off and bones on the drumstick” (Pietsch). Sentences like this show that someone doesn’t give a damn how food gets on the plate.
The “white festivals” should no longer exist in the future
With all love for the Bavarian inn tradition: This is also a break with the past. Because the Max Emanuel brewery, which was actually a brewery with an inn and beer garden before it was bought by Löwenbräu in 1896, was mostly a simple pub with cheap food for students at the nearby university, who can fill up quickly and easily wanted to. And in the 1960s, she became known above all for her balls, which have been celebrated at every carnival since 1967. The dress code was simple: Please come in white. For cost reasons, the student ball community was against elaborate costumes and advocated strict minimalism: “Everyone wear white, that’s enough!” And the “White Festivals” were born.
However, they will remain history, and a new edition is not planned. The hall, converted into a tavern-restaurant, is suitable for company celebrations and one or the other event, but it is difficult to imagine a cheap carnival ball in it. So, to paraphrase the philosopher Polt, the relationship between time and beer and money is probably no longer quite right.