Oyster cellar in Munich “permanently closed”: determined by tape announcement
Corona, staff shortages and food prices claim another victim. The Munich oyster cellar has to close unexpectedly and permanently.
Munich – “We say quietly ‘Goodbye'”: The last sentence on the answering machine in Munich’s Austernkeller restaurant is laden with sadness and disappointment. The restaurant only woke up from its winter break a week ago, but it’s now closed again. But this time for good. Without warning, the establishment on Stollenbergstraße closes its doors to lovers of classic French cuisine.
(Our Munich newsletter informs you regularly about all stories from the Isar metropolis. Sign up here.)
Bad news for gourmets in Munich: the oyster cellar “closed immediately and permanently”
For 44 years, waiters in pristine white clothes have been serving guests in the dignified rooms south of Maximilianstraße in Munich. Already the Parisian The 1970s style of the interior suggested an atmosphere that went far beyond just the food. Once the ordered dishes came – bouillabaisse, French onion soup, snails in garlic butter and of course oysters – the ambience was perfect.
Several reasons have now put an end to the enclave of original French cuisine, as Alexander Knobl, who took over the restaurant with his wife Brigitte Knobl-Schönhofer in 2007, told the Southgerman newspaper reported. “We would have loved to have celebrated 50 years,” says Knobl. Despite the daughter’s active support, the burden of the two lockdowns, the lack of staff and the extreme food prices became too much.
“Twice the high season was gone”: Oyster cellar owners suffered badly from the corona lockdown
As the name of the restaurant already reveals, the guest room is in the basement. Because there are no outdoor facilities for catering under the open sky, he and his wife are heavily dependent on the seasonal business. According to the Southgerman newspaper the main turnover was in winter and spring, when the weather was still too uncomfortable for the competition’s foreign trade. The past lockdowns However, two years in a row fall exactly on the most profitable time of the oyster cellar. “We missed the main season twice.”
Municipal requirements and staff shortages did the rest: Munich Austernkeller closes “immediately and permanently”
However, they are still waiting for state aid. “The support payments for 2021 have still not reached us,” he explains. The difficulties were added with the exploding prices for fishSeafood & Co. “Since the autumn season, lobster has cost a lot more than it used to, it’s crazy.” And the personnel situation is just as disastrous for the owner couple as for the rest of the catering industry, which is why landlords elsewhere rely on service robots.
As if that weren’t enough, the city authorities have imposed renovation requirements on the rooms of the oyster cellar, according to the report. Otherwise, no more hospitality may take place in the guest room. However, the owners of the house refused. And the two tenants don’t have the financial strength to handle the renovation alone. So, after 16 years, the two pulled the ripcord and, according to the answering machine, closed the restaurant “immediately and permanently”.