Organic Leipzig: Eat & sleep

In a city that -- according to reliable hearsay -- has at minimum five zero-waste supermarkets it should be easy to find the next shop or restaurant selling and using organic produce. Unfortunately my stay -- a night and a few hours -- was too short for thorough research, so the reviews here are far from comprehensive.

Where to stay

Having said this it turned out that in the year of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus it was impossible to find a place to stay sustainably and wake up to an at least predominantly organic breakfast at a short notice -- all the places below were sold out. I finally stayed at the DJH youth hostel and dropped the 100 percent conventional breakfast buffet with its abundance of small plastic-packages containing jams and spreads.

If you fancy a design hotel with (at least predominantly) organic breakfast in the very city centre there are three hotels of the Motel One chain, all in walking distance from each other.

The budget option if you can stay over night less central is the Home Planet hostel in Connewitz. They run washing machines and wireless on renewable energy, use eco cleaning agents, and seem to buy them from a package-free supermarket, Einfach unverpackt in the Südstadt neighbourhood. In the kitchen they use organic milk and bake the bread themselves. Their Neapolitan chef directly imports olives and cheese from near organic farms in Italy, but although the breakfast is vegetarian and home-made the manager told me that using more organic produce would excel their price calculations. The reception recently moved a few steps in north-western direction, to the corner of Hammerstraße. There it takes the place of former bakery shop Nix Tonne which re-sold day-old bread and cakes and was turned into vegan-vegetarian cafe Cafe am Ende des Universums (alluding to "the restaurant at the end of the universe" by Douglas Adams) by the Home Planet folks.

Where to eat

I decided to combine my basic overnight stay with a luxury dinner at breathtakingly beautiful organic fine dining restaurant Macis in the very city centre, a few steps from Thomaskirche. The place aims to re-create the air of the great urban bars of the 1920s, and you will be waited at table in style. If you have the budget choose the set menu, with impeccable wine selection on request. (During the covid-19 pandemic service however is only a la carte.) The food combining mediterranean traditions with local ingredients was an explosion of taste during both of my visits. I had the most delicate grilled octopus ever, and a perfectly balanced meat course, too. (I admit I had difficulties to choose from the menu as the vegetarian courses were equally promising.) Of course everything here is sustainably sourced, organic and to a great deal seasonal from local farms and suppliers. Make sure to use the bathroom as on the way, you will pass the ironwork of the house's historic lift (which unfortunately is taken out of service).

Lunch is less expensive, and during daytime you may also opt for a sandwich or coffee at the joint bakery cum cafe, or enter the beautiful Macis Biomarkt convenience store next door which stocks everything used in the restaurant kitchen and also offers salads made there.

If you prefer an ice-cream on the go as a sweet finish (or come with kids) simply stroll around the corner and pay a visit to Tonis organic ice-cream parlour.

I was pondering long whether I should list Café Central here -- as the city's foremost grand cafe back in the GDR it is an address to visit for its -- now of course completely exchanged and polished -- 1970ies-style interior -- or rather warn of greenwashing: Although the menu advertises organic bread and focaccia (which wasn't available for breakfast), the eggs are no longer certified for reasons that clearly show that the managers have neither understood the goods of organic agriculture nor the basics of organic certification. The only organic drink is tea (not even the milk for the coffee drinks is organic), the service unimpressing.

• Motel One Post, Grimmaischer Steinweg
• Motel One Nikolaikirche, Nikolaistr. 23
• Motel One Augustusplatz, Ritterstr. 4
• Home Planet, Bornaische Str. 56
• Macis, Markgrafenstr. 10, daily 11:30-14:30, 17:30-22.30
• Macis Biomarkt, Markgrafenstr. 10, Mon-Sat 8-20
• Café Central, Reichsstr. 2, Mon-Sat(Sun, PH) 9-22(20)

More to try

As I said before my time in Leipzig was limited (as was my upfront research) -- but here are a few more tips, for you to try (and tell me if you like):

• Symbiose, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 112, Tue, Fri-Sun 10-22 (opening hours to change from 1st Nov, 2019, so check their website), Sunday brunch 10-15 (vegan organic restaurant)
• Lindengrün, Gemeindeamtsstr. 1 (near Lindenauer Markt), Mon-Fri 9:30-17:30 (cafe cum organic grocery store)
• Café am Ende des Universums, Bornaische Str. 50, daily 9-12,15-18 (vegan-vegetarian cafe)
• Einfach Unverpackt Südvorstadt, Kochstr. 6, Mon-Fri(Sat) 9-19(16) (zero waste grocery)
• Einfach Unverpackt Schleußig, Könneritzstr. 95 (to open autumn 2019)
• Tonis, Könneritzstr. 21, Tue-Sun 14-18 (ice-cream)

Closed

• Nix Tonne, Bornaische Str. 50 (replaced by Café am Ende des Universums)

Covid-19 and this (travel) guide

The current pandemic renders a lot of my reviews in this blog useless: Restaurants and cafes are closed completely or have restricted opening hours, are closed in the evenings and only offer food to take away during the day. Non-food shops are closed entirely, supermarkets may have both, longer and shorter opening hours than usual, and some use special regulations to open on Sundays. Although I will continue to update this blog the best I can I'm feeling incapable of keeping track with all changes even in my vicinity. Articles with covid-19 updates can be found here. But if you take the time at home to plan your next travel after the pandemic I'm afraid cannot guarantee that all reviewed places are going to survive. For the November being restaurants, eateries and cafes in Germany are restricted to take-away, so many will be closed completely.

Social distancing and enforced hygienic measures decrease our ability to minimise package waste: However, as smear infections with covid-19 are negligible most bakeries, butcher shops, meat and cheese counters within supermarkets and restaurant take-away resumed to fill their customers' purchase into their bags and boxes. Organic supermarkets and farmers' markets are selling unpackaged fruits and veges as usual, you can prefer deposit bottles and jars to one-way plastic ones, and you can refill your own jars and containers with dry food, oil, vinegar, toiletries, household chemicals and more at zero waste convenience stores. Buy local! For most of the independent shops this is a veritable crisis, and you help them survive when you buy and order from them directly.

Mannheim: Zero Waste

Light and spacious instead of small and crammed -- Mannheim's package-free vegetarian supermarket Eddie's with its large shop window front is easy to find between two tram stops of line 6, Werderstraße and Pestalozzischule. Not everything here -- some herb blends to give an example -- is organic, but everything organic (which is the majority of items) is clearly marked "bio" on the shelves. In addition to a small selection of fruit and veges and all you need of dry food the shop's section of plastic-free household items offers alternatives when you need to replace plastic boxes, toothbrushes, drinking straws and the like. The bodycare and household chemicals section is very well assorted and -- unlike other zero waste shops which usually restrict themselves to liquid detergents -- also offers washing powders and soda by the kilogram. Students will get ten percent discount on Wednesdays, and the place has also gotten itself a decent coffee machine -- for a coffee at the spot or into the mug you provide. (If you buy a reusable mug the first shot is free.)

By now all supermarkets of the Basic chain should be equipped with at minimum one dry food refill station, and allow you to take home cheese, antipasti, cured meat and sausages from the meat and dairy counters in your own containers. That's exactly what the Mannheim branch at the tram stop Schloss offers -- partially supplementing but certainly not replacing the selection at Eddie's.

For coffee or ready-made meals head for the Kombüse gastro pub in the Jungbusch neighbourhood. Everything on their menu is available to take away, and they kindly ask you to come with your own jars. One-way packaging will be charged with a small surplus.

And last but not least: Naturally the organic bakery Bihn will happily put your purchase in the bags and boxes you provide.

• Eddie´s, Seckenheimer Str. 21, Mon– Fri(Sat) 10–19(16)
• Basic, B 1, 3–5 (Kurpfalzstr.), Mon–Sat 8–20