Exploring new territory is always a risk. Renate Ginhold has accepted it: 13 years ago she opened the first organic-vegetarian bistro in Starnberg and the surrounding area – the “Café Luna” on the Starnberg church square. The fact that the Starnbergers came for lunch and coffee right from the start shows that Ginhold has evidently spotted a real niche in the market. At the same time, their guests often bought vegetables and fruit in the organic corner in the guest room – a practical cooperation that still gives the bistro its special touch today. But now the 58-year-old wants to change. At the end of the month, she will hand over Café Luna to two of her employees, Nadja Tihli and Michael Hopf. Instead, she would like to open an organic vegetable and fruit shop in the municipality of Berg.
Ginhold is actually a trained makeup artist. She completed her training in Hildesheim, after which she worked as a make-up artist in the “Kleine Komödie” in the Bayerischer Hof in Munich. But city life wasn’t for her, Ginhold wanted to go back to the country and nature. After all, she grew up in Wolfratshausen and went to school in Geretsried. So she decided to ask Leni and Horst Wendt, the owners of Schloss-Gärtnerei Weidenkam, if she could do an internship with them. Their daughter Holde was one of their school friends, and the castle nursery near Münsing has been a Demeter operation for several decades. Working in and with nature was so much fun for Ginhold right from the start that she then completed an apprenticeship as an organic gardener in the same company and gave up the make-up shop. When her two sons – now 33 and 34 years old – were born, she initially had to be content with a temporary job: she began to work in the small fruit and vegetable shop below the Meier bakery in Starnberg, which also belongs to the family belonged to Wendt.
That was 35 years ago. As the years went by and her sons grew older, she became more and more involved in the vegetable shop. In 2000, Leni Wendt finally offered her to take over the business entirely. That’s what Ginhold did, and she continued to run the small business until 2008. “Then I had the impulse to open a café with lunch – and vegetarian at that,” she says. Background: Ginhold is a vegetarian and spent years wandering around Starnberg hungry during her lunch break. So she came up with the idea of opening a vegetarian bistro. One evening, as she sat at home with a glass of red wine and pondered the name for her restaurant, she saw a beautiful moon. The idea was born: Café Luna. Today, the small shop is a well-known insider tip. This is where you go if you want it to be tasty, cozy and familiar. There is a daily changing lunch menu. Ginhold employs four chefs from different countries.
Café Luna loses its founder.
(Photo: Franz Xaver Fuchs)
Only a few of their dishes have managed to become a staple on the menu over the past 13 years. This includes in particular the vegetable lasagne by Annette Frick-Roderer. The 61-year-old is one of Ginhold’s employees from the very beginning. Her lasagna is the dish of the day on the menu every two weeks on Mondays. The guests know that – and that’s why they come. Up to 40 portions must then be prepared. The second hit – also every Monday – is the apple strudel from the Frick-Roderer range of dishes. The strudel has also been an integral part of the menu so far. Just for fun, Ginhold even calculated the total length of the apple strudel eaten so far in 13 years. She came to more than 300 meters.
As difficult as it is for the 58-year-old to say goodbye to her Café Luna, her desire for change is just as great. “After 13 years, I’ve gotten a little tired from all the work,” she says. Gastronomy is a very strenuous business. Of course she is very happy that she was allowed to keep her shop open even during the lockdown times of the corona pandemic. “My vegetable area helped me a lot,” she says. During this time, food was “to go”. She hopes that she will soon have a little more time for her family in Berg, because after all she is also a grandmother of five.
So now Ginhold is literally returning to its roots: carrots, potatoes and celeriac. Of course, she already has a shop in sight in the center of Berg. Of course, she will continue to purchase her goods from Schloss-Gärtnerei Weidenkam and – as far as possible – from other companies in the region. In any case, she hopes that she will be able to open the new shop soon. Incidentally, the vegetable corner from Café Luna will also be moving to Berg. For this purpose, the guest room in Café Luna will be enlarged during a short conversion phase. The new operators will continue to run the bistro as a vegetarian.
On January 29, her last Saturday at Café Luna, Renate Ginhold wants to have a glass of sparkling wine as a farewell at 11 a.m. in front of the café with everyone who wants to come.