electronica 2012 MUNICH
Forget electronica, I want a beer!
You might be going to Munich solely with the express intention of visiting electronica, but if you do plan to take advantage of the city’s restaurants and nightlife Neil Tyler can offer up a few suggestions on how to enjoy Germany’s second city
T
he trade fair centre is situated in Riem to the north-east of the city centre and this area has developed rapidly since the centre opened over 12 years ago. Regular visitors will notice the increasing numbers of apartments and shops that have been build and as you arrive at the Messestadt West on the U-Bahn and turn left for the trade fair centre, you will miss seeing behind you a hotel, an enormous shopping centre and several new apartment buildings. The hotel, the Dorint, is smart and functional and as such is an ideal location for a meeting. Alongside the shopping centre there’s also a wide range of restaurants to choose from including a large pizzeria, sushi outlets and an excellent Kalten berg ‘Bierstube’ where you’ll be able to satisfy your craving for traditional Bavarian food served during and after the show. Munich wouldn’t be Munich without its beer. The beer is good in Munich and with seven breweries in town to choose from, along with over 500 smaller breweries scattered throughout Bavaria, the choice is almost limitless.
Where to eat?
The best places to find good, wholesome local food are the beer halls. But unless you like noisy, cavernous spaces, with row upon row of tables and benches, and waitresses clasping litre steins of lager to their ample bosoms, they can be hell. Below we've listed some traditional beer halls but also a few exceptions that might be worth a visit when you’ve beered out! For the traditionalist there’s the Hofbrauhaus, slap in the middle of town and behind the famous town hall - the Rathaus. This famous bier keller can be found in a small road called the Platzl. The most well-known of Munich’s beer-halls it’s busy, vast and deafening when its full, it has its own ‘oomph’ band pumping out music to a clientele that numbers more tourists than Germans. Not the most representative of
22 CIE electronica 2012
the many beer halls available in Munich but, nonetheless, worth a visit.
The Augustiner Keller can be found in the middle of the pedestrianised Neuhauserstrasse and offers good food. Although this is also very popular with tourists it’s a more honest and genuine representative of the German beer hall tradition. Underneath the Town Hall is the Rathauskeller. Found via some rather obscure entrances along the side of the gothic Rathaus itself this vast bier keller is a rabbit-warren of nooks and crannies. Here not only is the food and beer excellent, but an order for wine will be taken seriously As for the alternatives to the beer kellers we have the Weisses Brauhaus, Tal 7, a series of vaulted rooms with stained-glass windows. The wheat beer is delicious and the food, as long as you like wurst and sauerkraut, good. But don't sit at a table marked Stammtisch (reserved for regulars), you won't be served.
At Hackenstrasse 2 is the Prinz Myshkin a bright, modern room, where some of the most inventive, intensively flavoured and beautifully presented vegetarian food is served. The best antidote to a surfeit of beer, sausages and tradition.
Anno 1551 on Burgstrasse 5 offers whitewashed vaults lit by candles and Moroccan lanterns, and its menu offers a mix of German (pork fillet with mushrooms; smoked salmon and rosti potato pancakes) and Italian dishes (pasta, salads) and wines. Found in a small turning off a road called Tal is the Durnbrau. Just a short walk from the Torbrau Hotel this bar is a delight. Smaller than most it will offer a quieter evening for the jaded exhibition visitor. The beer is served in beautifully crafted, lidded beakers and the food that accompanies it is of a high Bavarian standard. Try it.
Munich has a myriad of different bars and
restaurants and Italian restaurants are particularly numerous. At the last count there were well over 500 to choose from. Indeed Italians call this city Monaco di Baviera. Among the many restaurants on offer are: Perazzo. Found on the Oskar-von-Miller- Ring 36, close to the Odeonplatz this is a high quality Italian restaurant. Certainly a place to go if you’re looking to impress.
Il Borgo is on the Georgenstrasse and is one of those restaurants where the waiter will do everything for you bar selecting the wine - just select either meat or fish and leave the rest to them.
Beyond Italian there’s French. Try Le Gaulois on Howarthstrasse in north Munich. Check tablecloths, wooden tables and chairs this Bohemian restaurant offers a wide and varied menu, especially impressive is the fish. For a glass of Sekt try Wiener on the Maximillianstrasse, between the Nationaltheater and Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten. Its halb-und-halb (espresso topped up with hot chocolate, served with whipped cream) is a great way to warm up. It also sells its own brand of hand-rolled cigars. It's small, but there are tables on the pavement (rugs are provided when it's chilly).
Bar Centrale, Ledererstrasse 23, is Munich's answer to London's Bar Italia. It's close to the Mandarin Oriental and a great place for breakfast.
If you have the time there are more theatres and galleries in Munich than anywhere else in Germany, as well as two outstanding orchestras, the Bayerischer Ballett, and one of the world's great opera companies, based in the monumental neoclassical Nationaltheater. Galleries worth a visit include Lenbachhaus, the former home of successful portrait painter Franz von Lenbach, and the palace and gardens at Schloss Nymphenburg, 6km from the city centre. Admire architect Francois Cuvilliés' rococo architecture at the pavilions and lodges in the Nymphenburg gardens and also in town at The Residenz, the sprawling faux- Renaissance palace where the Bavarian royal family lived, now a museum, and the Altes Residenztheater. There are also museums to cater for just about all tastes.
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