The Stammtisch, a Place and/or an Occasion!

The Place:

Every respectable beer hall or restaurant serving beer in Bavaria is home to a table called the “Stammtisch”. It is a table very often round in shape, reserved for a group of regulars of the place. Even if the restaurant is occupied to the limit this particular table might remain empty if none of the regulars are present. Sitting at this table is usually by invitation only. It is usually marked with a sign.

The Occasion:

In some cases it is also a reserved table for a particular time period, like as an example every Tuesday evening for a Soccer fan club. The Hofbräuhaus in Munich is actually home to over 100 different “Stammtische”, one of them meets every Saturday and Sunday, the next one daily, while another one gets together only once a month. A list of the Hofbräuhaus ones is published on their web site, the Hofbräuhaus even goes as far as printing custom Bierfilz or Bierdeckel(coaster) for these groups.

A Stammtisch may consist of a few members or may include many, some are very close knit, while others are open for a particular group, all members of an organization, employees of a company also international members of such. So if you work for BMW USA and you happen to go to a restaurant with a BMW Stammtisch, I almost guarantee that you will be very welcome there.

The Stammtisch I used to belong to, and if this particular place would still exist I would still be part of, served you your beer in your personal mug or glass, which were kept at the bar. You went and bought yourself a glass or stein, it had to have the official size mark (Eichmark, see picture below) on it, brought it to your pub and if you ordered a beer it was always served in your mug.

Eichmark

I visited places where the regulars actually had small lockable alcoves to keep their steins in.