Small kiosk, large offer: “Jeny's Café al Lago” on the lake shore in Leoni is particularly popular because of its family atmosphere. Jenny Köhling, who also runs the "Kaffeehaus Berg", has thus fulfilled a dream.
Leoni - For Hedwig Huber it is clear: "We will come here more often now." The woman from the Holzhausen district of Münsingen sits at one of the two small tables in "Jeny's Café al Lago" in Leoni. The kiosk has been open for two weeks, in the little house on Assenbuchner Strasse, which had been empty for about 20 years. Huber is thrilled: it doesn't always have to be the large café with lots of people. "And the floral decoration is so beautiful." Her husband Johann, who still has his bike helmet on, agrees: "What does it take at the lake?"
The reduced, the familiar, is particularly popular with Jenny Köhling's guests. "A kiosk by the lake has always been my dream," says the Bergerin, who had already fulfilled another one in January 2019 - with the opening of the "Kaffeehaus Berg". Now she commutes between her two cafes. After two weeks of operation directly on the shore of Lake Starnberg, Köhling says: “The kiosk is well received. There is a lot of traffic here. ”By that she means, above all, the cyclists who take a sandwich or a cappuccino with them. "To go" is part of the business model. Because of Corona, Köhling can currently only set up two instead of four tables next to the house.
From ice cream to white sausage breakfast
In between, bathers scurry through to unlock the door to the private Galloth beach. She also serves Jenny with her colleagues, her "four girls". The offer is large for the small establishment: it ranges from ice cream and baked goods to desserts such as tiramisu or pana cotta to white sausage breakfast and sausage salad. Finally, it is open daily until 7 p.m., on weekends from 9 a.m., otherwise from 10 a.m. Köhling hopes to also benefit from the ship landing stage, which is not yet being used by the steamers yet.
Köhling has lived in Berg for six years, and has lived in Bavaria since 1989. Born in Dresden, she came to Munich with her family as a child. She has been at home in gastronomy for 25 years, she has worked in various cafés and restaurants and most recently in the Starnberg “Seebar”. She painted her own shop on Lake Starnberg white on the inside, and photos of lovingly poured coffee cups hang on the wall. The sandwiches in the glass showcase are wrapped in nostalgic newspaper, baskets of fruit hang from the ceiling.
There is actually only one question left: Why only an “n” in “Jenys Café al Lago”, when Köhling writes her first name with two? That is exactly what she wants to achieve, to get into conversation. “People question that, stop and speak to me. That's trick 17, ”she says and laughs. You could also call it a marketing move.
Also read:
This is what the new Berger Rathaus will look like
In the middle of Berg, a construction project is taking shape that will change local life: with an ice cream parlor, a bakery with a café and possibly a hairdresser.