About us
The Kuffler Group is a privately run hospitality company with individual restaurants, Kuffler Catering, Kuffler's Wine Tent at the Oktoberfest and the Hotel München Palace.
Stephan and Sebastian Kuffler (pictured above right) are the managing directors of the Kuffler Group and the faces of the company.
Stephan Kuffler, a trained hotel manager and graduate of a short course at Cornell University, has been with the company since 1992 and Managing Director since 1999.
Sebastian Kuffler first completed his studies at the TU Weihenstephan, joined the family business in 2008 as operations manager and has also been managing director since 2016.
History
The beginning of Roland Kuffler's language degree at the University of Heidelberg also marked the beginning of the company. It didn't take long for him to realise that the town couldn't cater for the needs of the more party-minded international students. Him and some like-minded students clubbed together and opened a club. Sometime later he met Erich Kaub with whom he opened the legendary student bars, Tangente, Tangente Hour and the 'Kabarett Buegelbrett'. Courage and a small amount of luck helped the young entrepreneurs in bringing a student bar to every student city from Berlin to Vienna with considerable amounts of success.
At the end of the 70s Kaub and Kuffler had both started families in Munich and saw themselves as somewhat too old for the student bar scene therefore deciding to gravitate toward the culinary scene. Several smaller restaurants were taken over and the 80s saw the addition of the modern-Munich classics including the Haxnbauer, the Spatenhaus and the Seehaus to the portfolio as well as Kufflers Weinzelt on the Oktoberfest.
A few years later saw Dr. Erich Kaub and Roland Kuffler go their separate ways. A number of new partnerships ensued especially in Frankfurt (restaurants at the Frankfurt Airport as well as the Old Opera) and in Wiesbaden (Kurhaus-Gastronomie and the Schloss Johannisberg). The Mangostin in Munich is another joint-venture with Joseph Peter, with whom we still run the restaurant with.
At the beginning of 2002, one of the Kufflers' dreams was realized in the form of the Hotel München Palace. Repeated investment saw the 5-star boutique hotel turn into the prime example of a private, inner-city hotel. Meanwhile, the luxury hotel was enlarged by further 16 rooms and suites.
Kufflers are expansing their hospitality company for more than a year now. They add two restaurants in Munich: The Munich Wirtshaus „Beim Sedlmayr“ near the Viktualienmarkt undergoes extensive renovations and is plan ned to open in spring 2025.
Only a jump away from both, Beim Sedlmayr and Marienplatz, we are working on a new „Haxnbauer“ restaurant. The worldwide known Bavarian knuckle-restaurant moved to the new location, a historic building named Sterneckerbräu. Kufflers have operated the „Haxnbauer“ for more than 40 years and look forward to reopen it at the new place in December 2024, together with their partner Constantin Wahl.
In Frankfurt, more precisely in the Ostend of the city, Stephan Kuffler opens the Upper East Side together with Richard Schmitz, one of his Frankfurt partners. The event location offers three floors for up to 1.200 people, and a roof terrace with a sensational view of the skyline.
On the Upper East Site, Kuffler Catering is obviously the partner even for technic and decoration. They landed a coup with a contract to cater the German Formula E race in Berlin, starting in 2024.
Also in Frankfurt, at the airport airside, another Kuffler establishment is now opening: „Falconi’s“. The Italian-American concept is very reminiscent of both, New York and JFK airport, including Italian immigrant‘s cuisine. The Kufflers run Falconi's together with their managing director at Frankfurt Airport, Ralf Schweighardt.
Awards
2022
Hotel München Palace 3rd place Traveller's Choice of the 25 best luxury hotels in Germany
IHK training company
2021
Christian Müller, Kuffler Corporate Chef, receives the "Trainer of the Year" award from Cooking+Catering Inside.
2019
Kuffler Catering is nominated for the BrandEx Award 2020 in the category "Best Catering".
2018
Stephan Kuffler receives the Rolling Pin Award "Caterer of the Year".
Awarded the special prize "Caterer of the Year" by Catering Inside.
2015
Busche Verlag honours Roland Kuffler as "Gastronomer of the Year".
2011
Awarded the Hamburg foodservice prize for Roland Kuffler's lifetime achievement
Social engagement
Kufflers continuously support social projects such as the brotzeit e.V. association and others. Stephan and Stephanie Kuffler are committed to the Malteser Children's and Youth Hospice Service in single projects. Stephan Kuffler was one of the three chairmen of the Münchner Security Forum e.V.. In smaller individual projects, Kufflers support the Münchner Tafel.
The Kuffler Group has been a sponsoring partner of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Munich Aids Concert and the Richard Strauss Festival for many years. In April 2022, the selective support of the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich has been agreed. From 2024 on, Kufflers sponsor the BRSO Akademie, where young musicians can study through scholarships while already being part of the BR Symphonic orchestra.
A word about quality
Our mission in a nutshell: We source food from producers, farmers or breeders who are personally known to us and have often been our companions for years. We maintain close contact and regular exchange. In tastings, we check whether the product still meets our standards.
The chefs visit the producers at their place of work. Our food scout keeps an eye out for new products and sometimes manages to fin even better sources of supply for us; primarily around Munich, then in Bavaria, but also throughout Europe. In our own bakeries, excellent patissières and patissiers make desserts, tartes and cakes by hand. All of this without any use of flavour enhancers or artificial flavours.
We have a purchasing office in Bangkok for our Thai specialists at Mangostin. Not only do applications for new staff from the Far East come together there, but the colleague also brings goods from Thailand on the plane to Munich for us every week.
Last but not least, the beautiful picture: the interior designers of Kuffler Inn Design develop new concepts, furnishing proposals and designs together with the Kuffler family. As a rule, each piece is handmade by selected craftsmen in the surrounding areas of Munich and Tyrol.
Sustainability
We have formulated a sustainability promise that works both internally and externally for us. Despite occasional adverse circumstances, we believe that environmental protection, animal welfare and resource conservation all go hand in hand. We set ourselves this global task, the same way we set it for our business partners and suppliers. A joint sustainability programme for the future of all of us is feasible.
We live the Kuffler Code, which we expect from our employees. We bear social responsibility for our employees beyond the legal requirements. We use scrap wood, where possible even from other restaurants, and from the region.
We promote sustainable, renewable energy sources and economical technologies. The latter especially for machines of all kinds, air and heat sources. We are mindful of all resources. We travel by public transport and bicycle wherever possible and enable employees to do the same.
We avoid (packaging) waste and consistently separate the unavoidable remainder. We offer Take Home in sustainable packaging made of natural material, glass or enamel. We prefer large containers and fill in small serving units made of porcelain. We do not use any plastic crockery, cutlery or glassware, straws or stirrers. We source drinks in draught or returnable bottles.
We pay attention to fish and seafood from sustainable catches (MSC, Hiddenfjord salmon, Bluefin tuna by Balfegó) and to meat products from animal-friendly rearing. We use the whole animal ("nose to tail" principle). We look for regional, seasonal products from suppliers who share our standards. We plan with a sense of proportion to avoid food waste. When in doubt, we let a dish "go out" rather than keeping it on hand 24/7. We use environmentally friendly cleaning agents and sustainable cleaning materials.
Kuffler's wine tent has been carbon zero since 2018.
We are keeping to the times!