Hardly any Christmas parties: the landlord stays seated on 200 ducks

Created: 12/23/2021, 09:42 AM

By: Martina Williams

The tables would be set: But host Tim Haake in his Burger & Lobster Bank had to accept a number of cancellations of Christmas parties © Markus Götzfried

A disaster for the catering industry: There are hardly any Christmas parties this year.

This will be done with the leftover food.

Toasting the old year with colleagues, enjoying a festive menu with the family: During the Advent season, restaurants in Munich are usually fully booked. It looks completely different at the moment. Christmas parties are being canceled in a row. With fatal consequences for the gastronomy: The host brothers Moritz (34) and Tim Haake (33) sat on 200 ducks - so 400 servings including red cabbage and dumplings. And both had to ask themselves: where should you go with so much food?

Overall, around 95 percent of the brothers' Christmas parties were canceled.

They had already prepared the 150 menus for their Burger & Lobster Bank restaurant in Prannerstraße, their Neuner wine house in Herzogspitalstraße and an event location in the city center.

“But when the curfew was set at 10 p.m. at the end of November, there was a hail of cancellations,” says Moritz Haake.

The problem: The ducks for the menus were pre-ordered.

400 servings, around 140 kilos of poultry, plus around 80 kilos of red cabbage and 70 kilos of dumpling dough were waiting in the cold store.

500,000 euros loss

The financial damage is enormous. Moritz Haake: “We're losing around 500,000 euros in sales.” Because it's not just the ducks that have long been paid for. Boxes of wine, punch and cocktails were also bought especially for the Advent season. "In addition, we pay our employees full wages in December, they can't help it and have to get by with less tips anyway."

But what to do with the warehouse that is currently full to the brim?

"Throwing away the food was out of the question for us," says Tim Haake.

“So why not do something good with it?” For a week the brothers tried to find a facility for the needy where their team on site could cook the marinated ducks.

"But many are overwhelmed with so much food."

After countless phone calls and e-mails, everything was fine: "On December 23rd, we will be cooking and serving a Christmas dinner for around 350 people in need at the Südpark in Obersendling together with the Munich-City District Association of the Workers' Welfare", says Tim Haake happily.

“And of course there are also poultry legs for free for all of our employees.” Duck good, all good.

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