There is currently a debate about putting up patio heaters to help gastronomy through the cold season.
This way, guests could still be served outside.
But the devices are controversial and not allowed in all municipalities.
How places in the district handle the whole thing and what local hosts think of the idea.
The nationwide debate about the patio heaters as a lifeline for gastronomy is also going on in the Weilheim-Schongau district.
However, only a few hosts see a real option here for the bad weather period.
However, many are still undecided - also with a view to the expected operating costs.
District
- torn back and forth, that is what many restaurateurs in the Weilheim-Schongau district are when it comes to the subject of "patio heaters".
Because they are not allowed to serve fewer guests in their rooms due to the current Corona requirements, there is a debate as to whether patio heaters can help the hosts over the cold season - because beer gardens and other bar areas can also be used in autumn and winter.
While many larger cities in particular actually have a ban on heating mushrooms and are now considering easing - in Munich, for example, hosts are now allowed to set up green electricity mushrooms - restaurateurs in the Weilheim-Schongau district usually have nothing in the way of setting up the heaters.
Each municipality decides for itself whether it allows patio heaters - the five largest towns in the district still handle the whole thing in a similar way.
City of Weilheim wants to support restaurateurs
"No problem at all," says
Weilheim's head of the public
order department, Andreas Wunder.
It was only logical for him to support the restaurateurs and let them set up patio heaters.
"We want the gastronomy to survive." In the summer, the innkeepers had already been accommodated with an expansion of beer gardens - if they now want to put up patio heaters, that's understandable.
This is how
Peiting's
Mayor Peter Ostenrieder
sees it
.
“If innkeepers consider patio heaters to be useful, we don't want to stand in the way.” Whether the guests want to sit outside in autumn and winter is another question.
Patio heaters may also be set up
in
Penzberg
.
“Otherwise that would have to be forbidden in a statute - there is no such decision in the city.
This means that patio heaters are permitted, ”explains Peter Holzmann, head of the regulatory agency.
However, there have still been no inquiries.
In
Peißenberg
and
Schongau
, too, no innkeepers have yet turned to the regulatory office.
There is also no general ban on patio heaters in these two places.
Martin Keßler from the citizen service in the Schongau town hall takes a rather critical view of the gas heater.
"The open bar areas are relatively narrow and the patio heater would be very close to the customer," says Kessler.
In the case of electric patio heaters, lines would have to be laid over the sidewalks - not particularly "comfortable" either.
Therefore, the individual case is always checked.
Until the end of October, the open bar areas in Schongau are still approved that there is a need beyond that - there have been no signs of this so far, according to Kessler.
Landlord: "The urge to go outside is already extreme"
So is there really no interest in entertaining guests outside in autumn and winter?
Michael Fischer from the
terrace-café restaurant Bayerischer Rigi on the Hohen Peißenberg
can take positive things from the patio heaters for the cold season.
“People don't really want to sit inside.
The urge to go outside is extreme, ”he observed during the Corona period.
Because you have sun all day on the Hohen Peißenberg, you can also sit out on the terrace in autumn.
Fischer and his employees have already considered putting up patio heaters so that the terrace can be used for a longer period of time, he says.
A result has not yet been reached.
"We only have one awning outside and are afraid that the heat will dissipate quickly as a result," says Fischer.
That is why Markus Wohlhaupter from
Schongauer Löwenhof
is far more critical of
the patio heaters.
"It is an environmental sin before the Lord and consumes gas to no end," he said.
There are also high acquisition costs.
Nevertheless, he had already thought about installing patio heaters.
When the winter is rather mild, the patio heaters could be profitable because guests want to sit outside.
However, Wohlhaupter is still torn between the pros and cons.
An extremely large number of patio heaters would be necessary for cozy warmth
Davide Carbone from the
Quadriga at Weilheimer
Marienplatz has a similar
experience
.
"In the sun, at eight or nine degrees, it is certainly pleasant to have a patio heater - but if it rains or snows, they don't help either." And because people come to the Quadriga primarily to eat, Carbone assumes that they are Better to sit comfortably inside anyway - regardless of the patio heater.
In addition to the environmental pollution and waste of energy, which, from the point of view of Carbone, speak against the installation of patio heaters, there are high purchase costs: "With a distance of one and a half meters between the tables, we would need an incredible number of patio heaters." Nevertheless: "We're already considering whether to put them up - there is probably no ideal solution. "
