Sunday, 10 November 2024
To find a self-respecting restaurant or supermarket snack bar not equipped with a restaurant-size Italian espresso machine can be difficult, and even the tiniest organic corner shop will try to offer you ubiquituous Italian-style coffee drinks. Likewise you can have organic tea bag teas and infusions of usually decent quality. But for the modern nomad on the job, the afternoon chat with friends or the traveller in search of a undisturbed place for a break or observations, the dedicated coffee or tea house is a far more appropriate place to spent hours.
Common for all the places listed here that they are closed in the evening – usually around 6pm, some keep open until 8pm. Note that weekend opening hours may be even more restricted.
Viennese-style coffee houses
The headline is misleading – even if an increasing number of cafes see themselves in the tradition of Viennese coffee houses when it comes to the stuccoed interior, the dark wooden furniture, a selection of daily newspapers as well as the menu, they will usually serve Italian-style coffee drinks. The perfect place for breakfast and a coffee break at any time of the day, you will also be served lunch and snacks throughout the day. Expect however to order more of the deliciously handcrafted cakes than you initially intended to.
To my knowledge the only one left by the end of 2020 and my absolute favourite is the newly restored Cafe Reichshof in Haidhausen, covered in detail in my ice-cream post.
Oriental-style coffee
Since Iunu stopped serving Turkish mocca the only place offering responsibly sourced oriental-style coffee in Haidhausen is Saladins Souk with its rather irrational opening hours. If it is closed you may move next door to Erbils vegan Turkish eatery.
In autumn 2021 I noticed to my delight that these aren't the only mocca places anymore: The Icedate ice-cream parlour in Maxvorstadt started serving organic coffee, although the price tag of 2.40 EUR the mocca is rather stiff.
Italian style bars
Pop in, have a coffee, a chat, a sweet, and pop out again – the Italian bar is the hotspot of a neighbourhood. To my deepest regret its Bavarian incarnation is no more (landlord cancelled contract with the coffee roastery), but
in the middle of humming Viktualienmarkt market North of the crossing Reichenbachstraße/Frauenstraße there's Kaffeerösterei Viktualienmarkt, a vibrant market booth with bar tables under a roof. So even if the weather is bad and you're outside there's no reason to give up plans for an Italian style coffee drink made with sustainably sourced (though not organically certified), locally roasted coffee. The milk is organic and comes from traditionally working mountain farms in the Berchtesgadener Land district, packaged by the co-operatively driven Berchtesgadener Land dairy which, in 2017, banned the use of glyphosate for all its farmers, not only the organic ones.
If you prefer your coffee with biodynamic (Demeter) milk head for the Sorry Johnny coffee bar in Haidhausen, conveniently located at the Wörthstraße tram stop. The place has quite unusual opening hours: closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and open during the early evening
on Fridays and Saturdays. The bar replaced a vegan clean-eating spot in autumn 2021 which, for a while, prepared my favourite oat-based latte – a coffee preparation that's still available here.
Without the heavy car traffic the area between Max-Weber-
and Wiener Platz could be a lovely urban hideaway, with singing tram tracks, an underground station (exhibiting Munich's first horse tram), pleasant shops, cafes and nearby parks. To escape from the agressive passive motorised mobility along Innere Wiener Straße jump into quiet Steinstraße and take a breath at the tiny
Coffee Box cafe. Although some of their coffee is roasted by
Merchant & Friends in Glonn, none of the
beans served here are organic. The milk, however, is organic, as is the ginger and pomegranate juices used in some drinks. For a refreshment in the summer heat have an
organic, vegan popsicle.
If you want to mingle with people from the neighbourhood in Haidhausen head for the Italian-style
Fortuna Cafébar for a snack or a short coffee break. The milk is organic (though not the oat drink), and if you are in the mood for a "würstel" snack, the Frankfurters are organic, too. More organic ingredients may be hidden in the Italian-style sandwiches. Since the crossroad got bicycle parking on all four corners it's also become a relaxed place to watch people.
Not certified organic, but responsibly sourced coffee beans grown with respect for nature by small scale farmers – the coffee roasted at
the Alrighty coffee bar in
the newly developed, trending Werksviertel will nevertheless give you the comforting feel of doing something right. To find the place leave Ostbahnhof station through the Friedensstaße exit to enjoy a speciality coffee preferably in the sun.
(Almost) fully organic
If all you want is a place where you do not have to fine-read the menu to pick out the organic items your options are limited to the afore mentioned Café Reichshof, near tram stop "Wörthstraße") – and to Café Josefina in the legendary neighbourhood of Schwabing with its bohemian past, a few steps from tube stop Josephsplatz.
A cosy day cafe serving Italian-style coffee drinks made with real milk or a number of plant-based alternatives it's not only worth a coffee but also a lunch break. Although nearly all ingredients are organic there are a few exceptions when it comes to the cold cuts used in Italian-style sandwiches. As early as half past seven the place starts serving both, vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore breakfast on weekdays, and since it is quite small it's advisable to reserve a table if you plan to step by on a weekend.
For a fully organic breakfast or coffee near Münchner Freiheit head for the small artisanal (and fully organic) Brotraum bakery happily catering for early birds. The breakfast menu is simple – but you can order additional items like eggs and cream cheese on top or ask for a freshly prepared sandwich or roll of your choice. Don't forget to bring your own bags and containers when you come here to buy bread, rolls or lunch items for take away – the owner is inclined to support your zero waste efforts.
In Neuhausen, about half a kilometre from Rotkreuzplatz a gorgeous health-food eatery cum cafe gROOSartig (a play on the word "gorgeous" and the name of the owner) opened in 2020, offering breakfast, lunch, and coffee breaks based on regional, usually organic, often fairly-traded ingredients. Although the menu is planned with a focus on healthy food the demand for sweets and cakes has resulted in an increasing range on cakes and tarts.
The place also has a small shop offering plastic-free artisanal household items.
Shabby chic and homely places
The Westend has lost a lot of organic or partially organic places after or during the covid 19 pandemic, so I am happy to see a location with a long history of being organic to be revived in this spirit: The new (in 2024) vegan cafe
Etisch
at Gollierplatz
opened in lieu of one of those friendly, crammed owner-run organic cornershops, Nico's.
Its chef (as of April 2024) was in the process of getting a organic certificate for his kitchen, and the owner, Aylin, was planning to obtain a certificate, too.
For the time being, many ingredients are already organic, but not all. The pear-chocolate cake I had was soft and far too fast eaten. In addition I had a very decent cappuccino with organic oat milk (the default however is a conventional brand with aggressive marketing). Had I been hungry I'd have given the Turkish-style börek a try. Etisch – the name is a pun of the German words for "ethical" and "table" ("Tisch") – also offers a tempting lunch menu.
In addition you can shop for body care, olive oil, the non-alcoholic gin substitute of the otherwise organic distillery "Duke" in Aschheim and other sustainable (though not necessarily organically certified) products.
The neighbourhood cafe
JoMa (short for "John and Mary") at Carl-Amery-Platz in the Au is one of the few places where you can get predominantly organic lunch, snacks and drinks at a price also affordable for smaller budgets once in a while. The place is run by a registered social association founded by the local Lutherian and Catholic parishes and receives grants from the city of Munich. You will meet both, payed employees and volunteers, including people with a handicap. Lunch is served as a daily changing buffet made from predominantly local and/or organic produce from 11 am to 3 pm. The cake is home-made, and the coffee made with a proper steam machine. Unfortunately the place is closed during the weekend.
On Tuesday evenings (when the cafe itself is closed), there are
Pilates classes
for which you have to
sign up in advance and bring your own mat. The place hosts other events with a social and/or spiritual focus, too.
A small cafe of old, run as a social enterprise just a five minutes walk away from Rosenheimer Platz, Cafe Plaisir moved to a bigger and lighter venue in 2018 – and stopped using organic ingredients for their home-made ice-cream, chocolates, cakes and cookies. Still, tea and coffee drinks and a few more items are marked on the menu with a little heart denoting organic, and eggs – where marked – come from organic farms raising both, the hens and their cockerel brothers. Be patient and kind if the serving personnel does not respond immediately – the shop is a social enterprise run by longterm-unemployed persons.
Not far from Ostbahnhof station Kosy*s cafe promises to be "your second living room". As long as you have some tolerance towards cake stands filled with kitschy sweets guaranteed free from natural colourings and a decidedly vintage feel you can have an organic tea or soft drink, a coffee drink made with organic milk, organic eggs and cereals for breakfast or a hearty lunch often entirely made from organic ingredients in a leisurely atmosphere. The good thing is that organic ingredients aren't shamefully hidden – when it's organic they'll make it transparent on the menu. The bad news: their homemade cakes unfortunately are not organic, not even the eggs.
A few steps away, directly located at Orleansplatz cafe Iunu is a perfect place to meet a friend for a chat or to have a recreational coffee break including a chat with the friendly owner. Some of the coffee, the milk, the tea and a few staples used in the daily changing vegetarian and ayurvedic-inspired lunch set menu like agave syrup, rice and vegetable yogurt alternatives are organic, but unfortunately usually not the veges. The place was my joker for the best Turkish mocca in town, but unfortunately it is no longer being served due to marginal demand. With a small but carefully chosen (though not necessarily organic) range of delicatessen Iunu will also save you when in need for an unplanned last minute gift. On Saturdays the cafe is often unexpectedly closed due to arrangements, so check in advance.
Another cosy living room dubbed Zimtzicke is tucked away in comparatively quiet Elsässer Straße, only a five minutes walk from Ostbahnhof. All their teas, coffees, the milk and eggs are organic. Their lunch dishes, although mainly not organic, are tasty. However, when I enquired about the ingredients of the individual dishes on the menu, the staff wasn't able to tell whether they contained organic ingredients. The tiny place smells lovely of home-make cakes, some of them vegan. A perfect location to warm up after a winter walk in the city, and a pleasant retreat to welcome spring or to enjoy a summer day in the city on a table in front of it.
Another option to mingle with natives is a homely shabby chic neighbourhood cafe cum gallery in the neighbourhood of Au, on the Eastern shore of river Isar near Deutsches Theater. The audience of Café Käthe is mixed, coffee, milk, tea, rolls and cakes as well as most of the softdrinks are organic. They don't serve hot food, but you can have breakfast, sandwiches, cereals, salads and - of course – cake all day. Many but not all ingredients are organic, so ask if you care but be prepared that the service personnel isn't prepared to answer on the spot.
A crowded neighbourhood coffee bar in Obergiesing, Shotgun Sister allows you to meet people from the former working class borough which has been popular among both, students and families alike. All food including the cakes are home-made, with organic fruit and veges, often from local biodynamic agriculture. The cakes are fully organic. If you cannot spot the place at once watch out for the branch of the organic Hofpfisterei bakery chain which is located next to it, a five minutes walk from Giesing station. If you like splash out a coffee on an unknown – as the sister participates in the Hey campaign for fellow citizens in need. Needless to say that vegan and gluten-free options are readily available.
Big enough to almost guarantee a free seat for the visitor-by-chance is Cafe Katzentempel in the Maxvorstadt university quarter. You must however not suffer from a cat allergy as this rather special vegan place is inhabitated by six cats, and the once nice wallpaper on the wall with the scratch pole facing the entrance has already become rather shabby. Most of the softdrinks are organic as are all soy products and the cow milk (on request used for non-vegan coffee and tea-based drinks). The place offers an impressive range of organic nuts and grain milks to be ordered for your latte. The food and home-made cakes may include additional organic ingredients, although they aren't generally organic, just of local origin if possible. Students and apprentices are entitled special prices Tuesday through Friday, and free wifi is available. Depending on your table you may find the slightly aggressive sales presentation of the Katzentempel brand t-shirts disturbing – overall a place to either love or detest.
Further along Türkenstraße you'll find Mr. Ben – a small coffee cum snacks place offering (herbal) tea and soft drinks in organic quality. Unfortunately neither the coffee artisanally roasted in the neighbourhood of Giesing nor the milk and oat milk are organic.
There's a small selection of Italian-style piadina sandwiches and freshly home-made cake which occasionally may contain organic ingredients. The croissants used to come from an organic bakery a longer bicycle ride out of town but they were sold out (just like the veggie piadina) when I was there. Orders should be placed at the bar, but you will be served, and return to the bar for payment, preferably (and if the sum is smaller than ten euros only) in cash.
If you prefer strictly vegan places for a coffee break try Siggis which I reviewed here.
Self-service coffee house and deli bars
For the no-frills coffee with WLAN or on the go a number of nation-wide operating self-service coffee house chains serve Italian and American-style organic coffee often with organic milk and some more organic items like tea, soft drinks or fruit and nut bars. The market in Munich is quite volatile: The once dominating franchise San Francisco Coffee Company filed for bankruptcy during the covid-19 pandemics and does no longer have stores in Munich. Black Bean never expanded and survived, and Coffee Fellows is now ubiquitous, serving coffee at (among others) fuel and train stations.
My favourite in this category is a small organically certified Munich-based chain: Deli Star brings the spirit of New York-style deli and coffee bars to town, but with a strong focus on the environment: No plastics here, all take away stews and salads come in returnable glass jars, and the coffee on the go in a Recup deposit cup if you don't bring your own. Not every ingredient in their bagels, sandwiches, stews and salads is organic, but all regular organic items are clearly marked BIO on the menu: the cakes (though not the muffins and brownies), most meat products, yogurt, Lemonaid and Adelholzener fruit and soft drinks. Other ingredients like veges and cheese may or may not be organic. The coffee isn't organic, but the milk comes in huge reusable containers from a local organic farm. In general they use a lot of products grown and produced in the region and/or from small-scale manufacturers. Both branches are located in students' hotspots in Maxvorstadt: near the University and at the entrance to the Englischer Garten park.
Mingle with the working crowd
Campus canteens and coffee bars frequented by those working nearby are excellent places to get in contact with locals – with the disadvantage of opening hours following office hours.
On the eastern side of the railway tracks of Ostbahnhof train station, a few minutes north of the newly developed Werksviertel you'll find day cafe Louka, a friendly no-frills place mainly catering for the office workers and craftspersons working nearby. What you get here:
coffee, home-made cakes and sandwiches, a
daily changing soup and main course, often vegetarian.
If you want to taste simple German everyday standards like Kässpätzle and Schupfnudeln, or the Russischer Zupfkuchen ("Russian pluck cake") cheesecake, this is the place. Not everything is organic here, but both, the coffee, the milk and the plant-based drinks, the eggs, often the veges and the meat are.
Steinhausen is most certainly not a neighbourhood you will have on your travel agenda, but if you come to the Berg am Laim urban train, bus and tram stop the coffee bar on the ground floor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung publishing house is nearby and open to the public. It offers organic organic soft drinks and sweet pastries at very competitive prices. The rolls used for sandwiches are also organic, but the new (as of June 2024) caterer "Kochmanufaktur" stopped using organic milk for coffee drinks. At times the oat drink is organic, and you can usually spot the package or ask. Insist on having a recup returnable coffee mug if you want to take out the coffee.
To mingle with journalists, developers, printers and all those involved in the production of Germany’s most respected daily newspaper this is the place despite the surroundings.
If you happen to strand in the urban desert of office blocks between the tube stops of Karl-Preis-Platz and Sankt-Martin-Straße head for the Neue Balan campus, a former industrial area where in the past Siemens produced semiconductors. Quite centrally you'll find Balan Deli, a modern yet comfortably furnished day cafe run as a not-for-profit company providing fair employment for an inclusive team of people with and without handicaps. The cafe was founded by the nearby inclusive Montessori school and designed by a Hamburg based artist. You can have a healthy lunch, partially based on organic ingredients, or simply an organic coffee, tea, wine or soft drink, often sourced from local producers, in a pleasant environment. The bread for the sandwiches comes from a local organic bakery. Unfortunately the service staff is not very knowledgeable (yet) about organic and sustainably produced food (when I enquired about the milk they told me it was organic although they actually use the cheaper conventional product of the Berchtesgadener Land dairy which also offers an extended range of organic dairy products), but was happy to ask the kitchen staff about the origin of the chicken in the Thai curry (which was not organic).
Tea houses
For those seriously into tea the ultimate target in town is Tushita Teehaus in the Glockenbach neighbourhood, near the Western exit of tube station Fraunhofer Straße (and a five minutes walk South of Gärtnerplatz). To taste their around 150 organic and often fairly traded tea and tisane varieties (which aren't exhaustively listed on the menu) can take some time, but you can buy them to take with you. With every order the staff will hold a microscopic tea ceremony for you, and hot water for a second extraction is served in a small thermos aside. In the past they often used too hot water for some of their delicate green teas resulting in a bitter beverage, but this fortunately had changed to the better at my last visit. In addition they serve small vegan dishes as well as yummy home-made cakes, all organic, and there's a Japanese touch to both, the decoration, the food and the subtle focus on Japanese tea and matcha. Consequently the place is frequented by visitors of Japanese origin as well as the occasional Indian gentleman or the German hippie or university professor reading their daily. Given how frequented the place often is there's a quiet, pleasantly concentrated atmosphere to it.
More to try
In the Westend, a few steps from Theresienwiese
Café Gollier is a pleasant neighbourhood day cafe, popular for breakfast and hearty lunch. They promise to use regional, preferably organic products according to availability, but so far I have not had the chance to eat here.
Closed
The following places ceased to exist, although you still may find references to them on the web:
- Contains Coffee, Celibidacheforum
- Echt jetzt, Barer Str. 48 (web shop remaining)
- Emilo im Glockenbach, Buttermelcherstr. 5
- Emilo Westend, Gollierstr. 14
- Emilo am Odeonsplatz, Odeonspl. 14
- Emmi's Kitchen, Rosenheimer Str. 67 (vegetarian cafe cum eatery)
- Epique Raw, Max-Weber-Pl. 11 (vegan patisserie shop-in-shop)
-
Fritz Brotbar, Nymphenburger Str. 154 (bakery cum cafe)
-
Fritz Mühlenbäckerei, Müllerstr. 46 (cafe cum eatery, re-opened in 2020 as bread bar w/ show bakery)
- Himmelherrgott, Waldfriedhofstr. 105 (cafe)
- Die Kaffee-Küche, Weißenburger Str. 6 (cafe)
- Kafehaus Karameel, Nymphenburger Str. 191 (Viennese-style coffee house)
- Kuko, Westendstr. 87 (unknown whether the successor, Fika, is organic)
- Lolas Eckcafé, Metzstr. 37
- Kaffee Sonnenschein, Gietlstr. 17
- MyMuesli München, Viktualienmarkt 7 (cereals shop cum cafe)
- MyMuesli München-Pasing w/in Pasing Arcaden, Josef-Felder-Str. 53 (muesli shop)
- MyMuesli München OEZ w/in Olympia-Einkaufszenrum, Hanauer Str. 68 (muesli shop)
-
San Francisco Coffee Company, Nymphenburger Str. 151 (cafe)
- San Francisco Coffee Company, Innere Wiener Str. 57
- San Francisco Coffee Company Ostbahnhof, Orleanspl. 5a
- San Francisco Coffee Company Riem-Arcaden, Willy-Brandt-Pl. (cafe)
- San Francisco Coffee Company Maxvorstadt, Türkenstr. 47 (cafe)
- San Francisco Coffee Company Odeonsplatz, Theatinerstr. 23 (cafe)
- Black Bean, Amalienstr. 44 (cafe)
2024-11-10 21:00:00
[Munich, Au, Haidhausen, Maxvorstadt, Schwabing, Westend, Englischer_Garten, organic, coffee, tea, breakfast, lunch, snacks, fair, vegan, gluten_free, cafe, ice-cream, restaurant, American, Italian, Japanese]
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Wednesday, 02 October 2024
What about a stroll to the banks of the Werra river, a chat with a glass in your hand, a coffee break with gorgeous cake, ice-cream or a savoury snack?
Chez Nadine is a relaxed camp consisting of two wooden site waggons serving as kitchen and coffee/bar and two large awnings providing shadow and rain protection for beer benches and tables. A popular and relaxed meeting spot where it's easy to mix with locals while having organic food and drinks – try the local organic beer with a perfectly thin Flammkuchen (the Alsatian alternative to pizza) available both, as vegetarian, vegan and omnivore versions.
However, the beautiful open-air cafe is in danger: The federal state of Hesse has been planning a new
massive concrete bridge for goods trailers here, and although this bridge will destroy the waterside lawn and increase noise and exhaust pollution for the citizens living in this touristic town local authorities do not object as alternative, sustainable traffic solutions would have to be paid for by the municipality itself. Local climate and environmental organisations are lobbying for the re-activation of a former train line for the goods transport. Let's hope for the best.
Not only on bad weather days or during the cold season there's a welcoming alternative, the art cafe
Bistro Ringelnatz in the inner city, which also sports outdoor seating in a garden in the backyard. All food and drinks are organic, often with biodynamic ingredients grown in the vicinity. During the semester break in summer opening hours are quite restricted, but my guess is that the place is going to open on evenings when the students of the Department of Ecological Agricultural Sciences are back in town, together with concerts readings and exhibitions. The department is the reason for a high density of organic farms and market gardens in the region which provide produce for the Ringelnatz kitchen. This is also the reason why the changing hearty vegetable soups come at an unbeatable low price: Already the small serving is sufficient provided you do not come very hungry.
The cafe's name is taken after German painter-author Joachim Ringelnatz famous for his intelligent satirical nonsense poetry, and it is said that the patron is occationally reciting poems for his guests. If he isn't you may get a poem from the poetry generator in the corner (provided you have a 50 cents coin at hand).
For an organic soft or coffee drink you may also visit
Haases Garten-Café, a beautiful garden cafe in the backyard of the Haase household equipment and cocooning shop.
The cafe is open when you find a stand-up display on the walkway in front. To enter the cafe you have to pass through the shop. Unfortunately the home-made cake isn't necessarily made from organic ingredients.
If you are lucky enough to arrive during the opening hours of the
Röstwerk coffee roasters' use the chance to have a freshly roasted organic coffee. As I had no such luck I wasn't able to ask about the non-certified coffee and the milk.
With its strong focus on regional and organic produce
Schinkels Brauhaus, the beergarden of the local organically certified brewery, is the perfect place for beer, meat and burger lovers with a conscience. Organic poultry from Frischgeflügel Roth, beef from the Gut Fahrenbach's cattle fed on Schinkels' draff, cheese, milk (used in the ice-cream of the Griesel dairy farm), and nonetheless the beer made with local organic barley are all produced within a 50 kilometres radius.
Unfortunately the vegetarian dishes (with a notable exception of the
asparges from the Klenke farm in Bad Sooden-Allendorf during the season) do not have organic main components. As most breweries nowadays they also make lemonades dubbed "WIZ" which are organically certified.
There's indoor seating, too, important during the cold season.
More to try
At a significant distance from the town the village of Berlepsch-Ellerode also belongs to Witzenhausen. Here you'll find the
Cafe Hofgarten Gut Hübenthal, an
organic farm cafe and probably also shop as the farm is the homebase of the
organic delivery service Grüner Bote.
2024-10-02 16:00:00
[Witzenhausen, Werratalradweg, organic, coffee, lunch, cafe, restaurants, beergarden, burgers]
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Tuesday, 24 September 2024
Cities with major universities have had organic shops long before the arrival of the big organic supermarkets, and Göttingen doesn't make an exception:
Probably the eldest still existing organic cafe in town is
Café Inti,
serving soups, salads and bowls. Needless to say that they offer Italian-style fairly traded coffee drinks (with organic milk from a local farm if you like) and yummy cakes, and what's even better: They serve breakfast until 2pm, and the waitress proudly ensured me that everything was organic. A welcoming place all day around if you like places with a liberal collegiate atmosphere whereof there are quite a number in the city.
At the market place Am Wochenmarkt climb the stairs up to lokal neun, a dinner restaurant using preferably organic ingredients from the region.
It serves organic burgers and steaks, but also vegan dishes. A pleasant place to enjoy a summer evening on the roof terrace, but unfortunately the cocktails aren't organic. Note that the kitchen already closes at 9pm.
Theatre, comedy, concerts – the
Apex near Deutsches Theater stages an interesting blend of cultural entertainment, predominantly in German. From the street the place run by a non-profit association is barely visible if you aren't aware of the address, and I was surprised to find such a spacious rustic restaurant (instead of the small theatre bar I had imagined) after passing the hallway.
The place is neither fully organic nor certified, but many ingredients come from organic farms and producers in the region. Where else would you expect to find a comforting home-made chicken soup (made from organic chicken)? On the menu of the week I was there, I also found wild boar or the yummy shashuka with organic eggs and tomatoes (which I had). In addition to the weekly changing seasonal menu there's a bunch of rustic German or Mediterranean starters and main dishes served regularly, some of them suitable for vegans. The tasty home-made white bread made from organic wheat tasted home-made rather than made by a professional artisanal baker. There's a selection of organic drinks, unfortunately none of the wines. The service (many of them seemed like students) was swift and attentive, and the guests mainly local, of a broad range of ages, my guess would be between 30 and 70.
Film enthusiasts will love the Méliès arthouse cinema inside a former Baptist church on Bürgerstraße. But whether you want to have a snack prior to the film or a simple mediterranean dinner the
Bistro Cichon im Méliès is the perfect place if you like cafe bars decorated by film lovers. During the warm season you can sit in the beautiful garden – when it's raining there's also a small greenhouse to keep you dry, You will be served but you better place your order inside. There are two entraces to the bistro: one through the cinema from Bürgerstraße or a flight of stairs at the rear of the house when you come from Gartenstraße via a parking lot. The stairs at the rear facing the garden lead to the kitchen.
While the (vegetarian) food, sweets and non-alcoholic beverages are predominantly organic the selection of organic wines is surprisingly small. The focus is on snacks from the Mediterranean, tasty but not necessarily authentically spiced. If you go for the soup of the day you will be served a filling and comforting serving at a more than fair price. Unfortunately the place – just as the "lokal neun" – does neither serve food nor coffee on Sundays and Mondays. However, also on these two days in keeps open to sell prepackaged organic sweet and savoury snacks and cold drinks before the film screenings.
Another vegetarian, vegan-friendly place is the P-Café in the backyard of St. Nikolai church. Here they are highly
attentive to allergies, lactose intolerance and gluten-free diets, and wheelchair users are kindly asked to ring the bell at the main entrance facing the narrow lane part of the Nikolaikirchhof. And the best of all: it's 100 percent organic – warm and cold drinks as well as the cakes, breakfast items, salads, soups, sandwiches and wraps. The pleasantly decorated place hosts game nights (Göttingen has quite a tradition for playing board and card games in good old analogue fashion) as well as small concerts and musical sessions, readings and other cultural events. During the warm season you can sit outside, enjoying the church yard. And the best: The place keeps open on Sundays.
Coffee places
If all you want is a coffee shot head for the city's only organic coffee roasters',
Contigo. This fair-trade shop not only sells colourful gifts, fashion items, jewelry, organic coffee and chocolates, but sports a beautiful cafe corner serving organic coffee drinks and refreshments. If you choose a capuccino, flat white, latte or espresso macchiato with cow or oat milk, the milk comes in returnable cans from the Naturmilchhof dairy farm about half an hour by bike away.
The farm also supplies milk to the Christian charity cafe
Hope or Cafe Hoffnung next to St. Mary's church (Sankt Marien). You can also have organic fruit and soft drinks, but the cakes do not contain organic ingredients. Be aware of that there's an evangelical denomination behind this place.
Personally I prefer the
Weltladencafé fair-trade shop cum café near St. Nikolai church: a little shabby and focused on being a social meeting place it doesn't offer as
much handicraft as other fair-trade shops. Even without an own roastery it's more café than shop, a homely-bohemian living room with outdoor seating on the footpath when the weather is nice. The place is run by a collective of volunteers, so be nice even when the service isn't swift: They aren't paid to serve you.
Come by for a recreational coffee break with coffee from a steam-driven espresso machine. You may choose between milk, soy or oat drink, all organic. Occasionally home-made vegan cakes are being served: Since they are home-made by volunteers I wouldn't expect that they are always made from predominanly organic ingredients. Unfortunately they don't serve savoury snacks, but you may of course buy some fairly traded nuts or chips and consume them at the café.
Missing a traditional Italian coffee? At the
Preferita ice-cream parlour the coffee tastes authentic, even though the place isn't run by Italians. Ordering a caffè affogato (espresso with cream ice-cream) doesn't require an explanation. The owners plan to extend the place to a pizzeria, but were still looking for a pizzaiolo in September, 2024.
Tourists do not necessarily frequent the Südstadt of Göttingen, but if your bus stops at Lotzestraße you may decide to leave it for a coffee at the
Cichon Wein & Delikatessen delicatessen and wineshop. Not everything here is organic, but the owners take pride in carefully selecting artisanal wines, cured meat, cheese, oil, vinegar, preserves and more. You may also by buy organic sweets and chocolates. It's the same people who run the Bistro at the Mèliès cinema.
At the main train stations of bigger German cities
you will usually find a franchise serving coffee drinks made with organic milk, either a "Coffee Fellows" shop or, as in Göttingen, a branch of the organic porridge brand
"Haferkater". If you have sufficient time insist on having your coffee in an earthenware cup on the spot; returnable cups for a coffee on the go unfortunately require registration with an app. The shop's comparably liberal opening hours make it a good last resort for a healthy sandwich on Sundays, early mornings or weekdays after 6pm. However, if you have sufficient time on a weekday, you may rather opt for a without doubt 100 percent organic sandwich from either, the Bioladen in der Burgstraße or Alnatura.
Closed
2024-09-24 12:00:00
[Goettingen, organic, fair, coffee, tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner, cafe, restaurant, gifts, cinema]
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Monday, 23 September 2024
Both touristically attractive historic towns have direct hourly local train connections with each other and to Göttingen. You can also
continue your bike tour along the
Werratal bike route from Eschwege via the spa town of Bad Sooden-Allendorf to Hannoversch Münden (partially on the iron curtain corridor), and from there on to Göttingen.
Eschwege
Although Eschwege provides medical and cultural facilities for many smaller (and in the past often more important) small towns around and moreover is one of the few (West-)German towns where people transport by railway was discontinued in the 1980-ies and re-opened (with a new railway station) by the end of 2009, I couldn't find any cafe, restaurant or eatery serving at least a few organic items.
Even the organic convenience store
Biotop
on the premises of the former mutual savings bank ("Sparkasse")
does not have a cafe corner. But you can order a roll with cheese of your choice to take with you from their bakery and cheese bar. The friendly and well-assorted shop with its archetypal wooden interior offers all you need of organic food and household necessities, and, as delivery service "The rolling organic shop" ("Der rollende Bioladen") also serves the neighbouring municipality of Bad Sooden-Allendorf.
If you cannot find all you want here, the town's
Reformhaus (health food shop) and the Tegut supermarket offer a good selection of organic products alongside with their conventional fare.
For organic eggs you may also take a bike tour to the "Regiomat" vending machine of the nearby organic
Werragut farm. There you can also order and collect bread and rolls from the farm's bakery; their
hens are butchered and sold by Frischgeflügel Roth in Witzenhausen.
Bad Sooden
The medieval spa twin-town with its beautiful half-timbered houses does no longer have an organic corner store, but it sports a Sunday-open shop selling herbal teas, organic skincare, natural perfumes and incense, books on wellbeing, a selection of fairly traded sweets and more:
Eden – gesund & mehr in Sooden.
For organic food on the Sooden side of the Werra river (including unpackaged organic bread and rolls) head to the (conventional) Tegut supermarket in the Sooden industrial area (more or less a lifeless parking lot). A branch of the drugstore chain DM a five minutes walk from the train station is offering a huge range of pre-packaged organic dry food and preserves as well as certified natural bodycare.
Spa guests and patients of the various rehab clinics in the medieval salter town are the main target audience of
Café Feldmann, the spa town's grand cafe and confectioners' shop by the spa gardens (Kurpark).
The cafe used to be a customer of the no longer existing organic Bäckerei Schill, but the breakfast rolls you get when staying overnight in the attached bike-friendly bed & breakfast place or have breakfast at the cafe are no longer organic in 2024. The milk used for coffee drinks and tea are organic, and eggs served for breakfast or lunch, too. The waitress had to find out herself when I inquired, so there's still a chance that more organic ingredients are (occasionally) being used in the kitchen, but I can't tell.
Allendorf
On the other side of the train line and the Werra river, in the older town of Allendorf (in the medievals Sooden was the "industrial area" while everyone, from the salters to the owners of the salt pans lived in Allendorf) you'll find a fully organic wine shop cum cafe, the
Laden 41. In addition to the
wine, you'll find honey, greek olive oil and preserves, local cheese, and bread and rolls from the Werragut farm. The latter you have to order upfront, but since the shop keeper always orders a little more you may buy a bread spontaneously.
Unfortunately it's open only three half days of the week. Whether you are interested in having an organic coffee, beer, lemonade or a glass of wine, or are in the mood for a chat with locals, mark them in your calendar.
Thursday in general is the weekday when many smaller shops in the region open for the first time, and so does
Café Clown, a cosy small cafe directly located at the Werratal bicycle route, with a beautiful view at a branch of the Werra river with the picturesque "Tiny Venice" ("Klein-Venedig") neighbourhood (in the past the houses of the local fishermen). Here you can have comforting home-made cake (including the filling Westphalian Pickert, a sweet potato cake), coffee, and frozen yoghurt
often made from regional, sometimes organic ingredients. Tea, milk and eple juice are generally organic, and if not asked specify that you want the organic variety of sugar beet syrup on your Pickert.
The cafe's name derives from the owner's charity work as a clowndoctor. Her partner is an architect and urban planner who has been planning and conducting social house and neighbourhood building projects with natural materials for decades. The two also offer accommodation in their adjacent tiny house, carefully restored with natural materials and equipped with a rain shower. Ring them for booking even though you find the place on AirBnB.
How can a bookstore survive in a once important medieval smalltown? The
Buchhandlung Frühauf in Allendorf has found a way by offering more than books and stationery: The bookseller added regional products to his assortment, both, books with a regional context, and a shelf with drinks and preserves from the region (some of them organic) and a few organic wines to go with your book. Until autumn 2023 they also sold organic bread and rolls by the organic bakery Bäckerei Schill until the baker retired without finding a successor to take over the workshop.
Oberrieden
However, there's still an organic bread bakery in Bad Sooden-Allenberg: The organically certified community-supported agricultural (CSA) collective
Höhberg-Kollektiv in the village of Oberrieden (which is a part of the municipality) runs both, a dairy and a bakery in addition to a market garden and a school farm. First of all they distribute their products to their subscribers, but from Monday afternoon to Wednesday evening you can buy excess produce by leaving cash in an honesty box. How frequent you can find bread or dairy products there I cannot say.
Dietzenrode
The vicinity to the Witzenhausen department of Ecological Agricultural Sciences certainly plays a role in the comparably high density of CSAs and organic market gardens in the region. Just across the border between Hesse and Thuringia, the
Gemüseinsel ("vegetable island") in Dietzenrode is the one closest to Allendorf, about half an hour by bicycle. This CSA market garden has a booth cum fridge where you can buy freshly harvested vegetables 24x7 without being a member. You pay by putting your money in an honesty box, so come with sufficient cash.
The Gemüseinsel is located on grounds formerly used by the
Inselhof, a more than 30 years old organic farm, established by Witzenhausen graduates after the reunification of Germany.
The farmers couple is gradually about to retire: They gave up mixed farming recently, but are continuing with a vegetable garden and fruit
orchards. The latter provide ingredients for the farm's distillery. You can order their special small-scale spirits on-line or buy them from the farm shop which in summer 2024 still offered frozen and preserved meat and sausages from the last flock of animals, vegetables from the garden and apple juice from the orchard, cheeses from farmer friends and a small selection of organic bodycare.
Their products are all organic, but no longer certified.
Closed or no longer organic
When the artisanal baker Schill closed his workshop in October 2023 the region lost its only organic baker. He also delivered to Café Himmelspforte, the parish café of Allendorf's Lutherian St. Crucis church, with its beautiful outdoor seating next to the "bible garden" with a display of plants mentioned in the bible. Nowadays the only organic item the café offers is one type of organic tea bags.
2024-09-23 13:00:01
[Eschwege, Bad_Sooden, Allendorf, Dietzenrode, Werratalradweg, organic, coffee, lunch, cafe, supermarkets, grocery, accommodation, sunday_open, Regiomat]
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Wednesday, 18 September 2024
If you are on the outlook for a cafe serving at least a limited selection of organic drinks and have no idea where to go, modern and art museums usually are a good bet. This algorithm also works in Kassel: The cafe cum restaurant of the Grimmwelt, a museum dedicated to the lifes, works and influence of the Brothers Grimm, dubbed
Falada (like the horse in the fairytaleThe Goose Girl) serves coffee drinks with
organic milk, organic burger from the local Biometzgerei Armbröster, and organic eggs. Their
home-made cakes are also made with organic eggs and milk. You can have
an organic white or red wine, tea, organic gin (by The Duke) and fruit juices with sparkling water ("Schorle"). The place is
organically certified;
breakfast is being served until noon.
Come hungry if you want to have a burger as a big helping of fries is included. The fries actually are chips (half-slices of potatoes) and very nice. The chicken burger was made with organic chicken, but unfortunately the juicy meat had a dry and hard (instead of light and crispy) cornflakes coating.
During the warm season and when the weather is nice the museum sports a beautiful beergarden,
Grimms Garten, run by the same caterer. Unfortunately the 2024 season is already over.
If you want to eat outdoors on nice weather days in autumn, the fully organic pizzeria
Solo has garden tables on the footpath in front of it. Traditional Italian pizze or carefully selected modern topping combinations like salmon, zucchini and pine nuts on extremely nice (that is: both, soft and crispy) pizza bases make up for about half of the menu, and the pizza arrive in minutes after I placed my order. The other half of the menu consists of Italian
starters (soups, salads or antipasti) and pasta. The menu also offers one traditional Italian second course, served in the German tradition with fixed add-ons.
Even if you aren't hungry simply step by for a relaxed coffee or aperitivo.
On the other side of the street you'll find the city's organic butcher
Armbröster. I haven't been there during the shop's opening hours, but I suspect that you can get a sandwich or even lunch there: Most artisanal butchers server sausages or grilled meat with bread or potato salads. Whether you'll find something suitable for vegetarians or vegans, I however don't know.
Most organic supermarkets of the
Denns Biomarkt chain offer freshly made sandwiches and coffee drinks from their bakery tills in the entrance area. But the Biomarkt at Königsplatz is something special: The supermarket is located on the premises of the former Kaskade-Filmpalast cinema, a protected historial monument from the 1950ies, famous for its illuminated fountains in front of the screen. The cinema was revived for a short time during the documenta (13) contemporary art exhibition in 2021. Now you can have a view at both, the cinema's gallery, and the fountain pipes protected by a glass floor, in the rear of the supermarket. You may also take your coffee, sandwich and (in the summer) pre-packaged Cortina ice-cream upstairs to a cafe area with a view at the cinema's chairs and ceiling. The stairs are located opposite the bakery till, to the right from the entrance.
Travellers arriving at or leaving from the long-distance train station Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe will find a small farmshop cum delicatessen only a few steps from the station: The
Urgeschmack-Hofladen Jausenstation
offers organic cheeses and other dairy products, but first of all cured meat and sausages from a farm run according to the principles of organic agriculture but not certified organic. Unfortunately the shop was closed when I found it, but it seems to provide you with picnic food and travel provisions as long as you are an omnivore.
More to try
When I tried to get myself a coffee from the Danish cafe
Frokost hos Line (Norwegian/Danish for "breakfast at Line's") I found the place busy but closed for the general public. So I cannot say how much organic ingredients they use in their Danish sandwiches ("smørrebrød") and cakes. They used to have organic coffee and milk, and I hope that Line is going to continue with a strong organic focus after re-opening.
In the course of my upfront research I found the following place
which I did not had time to visit. Let me know if you can confirm or deny its existance.
2024-09-18 16:30:00
[Kassel, organic, coffee, tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner, cafe, restaurant, pizza, butcher, eatery]
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