It’s commonly understood that the best way to explore a new place is to go straight to the locals. Each week in the Urbanist, we take that wisdom one step further by seeking out not just locals but local experts — those who are especially well versed in their cities’ newest and most noteworthy scenes — to give us insider recommendations. This week, we asked brewer Thomas Girg, owner of the Haderner Bräu München, for his picks in Bavaria’s capital city.
“People in Munich don’t just wear lederhosen and dirndls because there’s a carnival or whatever. The people live this tradition. They live Bavaria, they talk Bavarian. Throughout the year, there are many small festivals and other beer festivals in Munich and Bavaria. This is the real Munich. Oktoberfest is more for the world. I absolutely recommend going to Auer Dult (Mariahilfplatz); it’s a mixture of a traditional festival and market that happens three times a year, including two weeks after Oktoberfest. There you can have a beer and walk through stalls selling rare books, handmade soaps, and wooden goods. During the summer months, almost every district has its own street festival. Especially popular is the great Streetlife Festival on the Leopoldstraße but also the Hans-Sachs-Straßenfest or Ois Giesing. The time just before Christmas is something: the many small Christmas markets, the people of Munich really love those. The best known is the one on Marienplatz, but just around the corner, at the Viktualienmarkt, a small but colorful Christmas market called Winterzauber takes place. Here you have delicious homemade cheese or warm glühwein (mulled wine) or glühbier (mulled beer). We make one ourselves with our dark organic beer, cherry juice, rum, and many Christmas spices.”
His Other Musts
Hotels
“The city hotels are very modern and trendy, no question. But there are also many family-run houses, usually a bit out of town. I especially like the Schlossgut Oberambach (Oberambach 1) on Lake Starnberg, which is about 30 kilometers south of Munich and under an hour from the city with the rapid-transit railway or over the Autobahn A95. The house has about 40 rooms and is in a secluded location with a 50-hectare forest and meadows around. The onsite Restaurant Roseninsel has a very good breakfast. It’s an ecohotel, so almost everything is organic (except the fish and venison), and there are plenty of vegetarian and vegan dishes. The ‘superior’ rooms in the historical castle part of the estate have views of the Alps, and there’s an adjoining newer building with rooms decorated in a French-country-house style.”
Restaurants
“FrischeParadies (Zenettistraße 10e) is a specialty food shop. There’s no better place in Munich to get fresh food. It’s actually an Italian-style deli, market, and bistro in one; you can see the kitchen in the middle of it. They have really fresh fish and really nice wine. I usually get the fish platter — the type of fish changes daily depending on what’s available. It’s really amazing. It’s served with vegetables and wild-herb salad. They also have our Haderner Bräu organic beers on tap. A little further out in the country there’s Büffelhof Beuerbach (Benediktstraße 4). It’s a buffalo farm, and the restaurant is run by four top chefs who make great dishes from everything buffalo: buffalo meat, buffalo milk, buffalo butter. My favorite dish is their baked buffalo schnitzel with cranberries, horseradish, and potatoes. It has a fabulous taste, different from any other schnitzel you had before. It’s a really special place. You can walk through the farm and see the buffalos.”
Bavarian Food
“In Bavaria, the food is really oriented to enjoy with a glass of beer. The Haderner Augustiner (Würmtalstraße 113) is just around the corner from our brewery. It’s really Bavarian, so you have schweinshaxe, which is pork leg. You get a great pork roast; it has a really crunchy crust. They have a nice beer garden, too, and the building is almost 300 years old. It’s one of the first breweries in Munich. If you stay in Munich, you have to visit Ratskeller (Marienplatz 8). It’s very good Bavarian cuisine. Both places have typical Bavarian styles inside, lots of wood: wood floors, wood paneling, wood chairs. But Ratskeller is more Gothic with stained glass and painted vaulted ceilings.”
Breweries and Beer Halls
“Munich is a beer city. At our small, family-run brewery, Haderner Bräu München (Großhaderner Str. 16) in Hadern, most of the beers we produce are traditional ones, like the dunkels, the popular dark Munich beer, or a hefeweizen or a lager. In the past, only dark beer was brewed in Munich. Our most popular beer is the natural, cloudy helles lager. It’s very tasty and only slightly hopped. Augustiner-Bräu (Landsberger Str. 31-35) is the oldest brewery in Munich. The building was an old monastery, and they have a really nice beer garden. The biggest breweries here, like Augustiner and Hofbräuhaus, have similar beers on tap because they are serving the crowds. But I like the smaller beer halls, like Tilmans Biere (Thalkirchner Str. 53), Giesinger Bräustüberl (Martin-Luther-Straße 2), and Crew Republic (Andreas-Danzer-Weg 30), where you can drink craft beers: IPA, stout, and so on. At Tilmans, try the oyster stout, which has impressions of roasted malt, chocolate, and coffee.”
Flea Markets
“Munich loves flea markets. Almost every week, there’s a flea market in one of neighborhoods. At some, you can buy everything from clothes to chairs, and some have old historical goods. Then there are others that take place outside people’s homes, called Hofflohmärkte. You can go from house to house — people will open their garden gates or garages — and you can find many beautiful treasures. The Hadern borough really started this trend, but you find these all over Munich, and you can find out where these garden and yard markets are happening here.”
Museums and Attractions
“Deutsches Museum (Museumsinsel 1) is a must. It’s the biggest science-and-technology museum in the world. It’s in the city center and for all ages. They have exhibits about planes, animals, the first moon walk, everything. Art lovers should go to Pinakothek der Moderne (Barer Str. 40) as well as the Alte Pinakothek and Neue Pinakothek (Barer Str. 27). Together they have one of Europe’s best collections of fine art. And Museum Brandhorst (Theresienstraße 35a), which focuses on contemporary art, has more works by Andy Warhol than anywhere in Europe. At the Olympiaturm, or Olympic Tower, in the Olympic Park, you can dine in the restaurant at the top. The whole space turns, so you can see all of Munich as you sit there. It also has a wonderful view of the Zugspitze, which is the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains. Afterward, visit the BMW Welt (Am Olympiapark 1) — Munich is the headquarters of BMW — which traces its history back to its first motorbike.”
Day Trip
“Drive to the Zugspitze. It’s the highest mountain in Germany, two hours south of Munich. Half of the mountain is on the Austrian side, but the highest point is on the German side. It’s almost 3,000 meters. You can hike and climb around there and take the cable car or lift to the peak. It’s a big ski area. You can also paddle on Lake Starnberg, about 20 minutes by car outside of Munich. Germans love to go there in the summertime and stand-up paddleboard, which is really big in Germany right now. It’s unbelievable, they’ve already started to limit the number of people who can do it at some Bavarian lakes.”
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