One of the most fun discoveries I made during my 6 weeks living in Munich was this delicatessen. I knew nothing about it and happened upon it while exploring. What a delight it turned out to be!

Alois Dallmayr, usually abbreviated to Dallmayr, is the largest delicatessen business in Europe and one of the best-known German coffee brands: The company has a history of over 300 years and is still in family ownership today. The Stammhaus (original store) in Munich attracts around 2.8 million visitors per year. That’s the store I enjoyed.

delikatessengeschäft

The origins of the company can be traced back to the year 1700. At this time, the Munich merchant Christian Reitter ran a business that is considered the direct precursor of the present company. Around 1870, the business came into the ownership of Alois Dallmayr, whose name the company still bears today. He sold the business to Therese and Anton Randlkofer in 1895. Under the management of Therese, a remarkable businesswoman, the Stammhaus developed into one of the leading delicatessens in Europe, with no less than 15 royal purveyor titles.

In 1933, Dallmayr’s coffee era began: In this year, a coffee merchant from Bremen, Konrad Werner Wille, came to Munich and established a specialist coffee department in the “Delikatessenhaus Dallmayr” that still exists today, which has achieved international renown, amongst other things, due to the television advertisement for Dallmayr Prodomo. The coffee business developed so successfully that in 1985 it was established as a spin-off, the independent subsidiary Alois Dallmayr Kaffee OHG, which represents “Coffee & Tea,” now the largest business unit in the company. The Nestlé corporate group acquired an interest in Alois Dallmayr Kaffee OHG.

“Der Dallmayr,” as the Stammhaus in Munich is known, is the largest delicatessen house in Europe. The store is divided into 19 specialist departments (coffee, pralines, wine, sausage & ham, fruit & vegetable, fish, cheese, bread, pasta, meat, cold & warm buffet, tea, etc.). Due to the television advertisement for the brand Prodomo, the coffee department is the best-known of all: Just as in the advertisement, the coffee is still weighed with beam scales today. In the center of the shop is the Putten (cherubs) fountain, in which crayfish wait to be sold. To a large extent, the goods offered in the Stammhaus are self-produced.

The small “Dallmayr” restaurant, which focuses on classic-modern cuisine is located in the first floor of the Stammhaus. It was re-opened in 2006 and is one of the three Munich restaurants that have been accredited with two Michelin stars. Chef de cuisine is Diethard Urbansky. The wine list includes more than 700 items.

On the second floor, there is a production kitchen, in which 70 chefs create gourmet salads, dishes for the warm buffet and cream cakes. The wine department, in which wines in particular from France, Italy, Germany and Austria are sold, was re-designed in 2008. What Dallmayr cannot produce on-site for reasons of space – such as smoked salmon or chocolate – is produced in their own factories in and around Munich. In Dallmayr’s praline factory near Munich, more than 40 tonnes of handmade pralines and fruit jellies are produced annually in around 70 different varieties. Furthermore, on 29 June 2003, Dallmayr opened a shop in Terminal 2 of Munich airport, to which a café is also attached.