Would you like to visit a restaurant? Even in times of corona? Good for those who have a mobile home. Because the idea of a candlelight dinner in a rolling home has spread rapidly across the country. We tried it.
“That fits!” A quick glance is enough and Anette Kern wipes all doubts aside. The boss of the Hotel Kern in the Idstein district of Oberauroff is already in position to wave our 7,80 meter long motorhome backwards through the arched courtyard gate. The length isn't even the biggest problem. Rather, the challenge with the opulent Niesmann Liner Arto 2,32 E is almost three meters high and a no less impressive width of 77 meters. But after head chef Uli Kern also hurried over, we maneuver the with the combined forces of four directors Around 170.000 euros expensive luxury liner centimeter by centimeter at a snail's pace in the hotel courtyard, which serves as a beer garden in non-Corona times.
Only option during lockdown
But why the arduous action? The family business in the old town center of Oberauroff, less than a kilometer from the Idstein motorway exit on the A3, has been offering a candlelight dinner for mobile homes since November. In the lockdown phases of the pandemic, this is probably the only opportunity to enjoy culinary delicacies, including service and service, just like in a restaurant. In the immediate vicinity of the restaurant, but also Corona-compliant in your own mobile home. A very special kind of "meal on wheels".
As soon as the assigned parking space has been taken after a few more maneuvers, Anette Kern brings the tablecloth, a candle in the glass as decoration and the "tools", cutlery and serviettes. Of course, she only delivers it to the motorhome door. For the corresponding candlelight ambience, the occupants have to lend a hand themselves. A procedure that is repeated with the aperitif and each of the three or four courses.
No drink driving
Whether wild herb salad or hand cheese cream soup, pikeperch fillet on lentil vegetables, duck breast in orange sauce or medallions from the saddle of deer, chocolate soufflé, crepe with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel cream or apricot dumplings with browned butter - there are always two menus from 34,50 euros to choose from with enough alternatives for each course. Ideally, you have already made the specific order in advance with the necessary appointment reservation and only have to place the order with the attentive hotel manager - or whatever alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are desired.
At least the driver has to hold back. Of course, the motorhome guests also have their bed with them and can go straight to sleep on the spot after a sumptuous meal. But that is not allowed. Not because the Kerns have something against it, but because the regulatory office doesn't play along. “We coordinated everything with the responsible authorities,” explains Anette Kern, “for example that the guests should stay in the mobile home if possible, but always have to wear a mask in the courtyard. Just staying overnight is not possible. "
As in the Oberauroffer family business with 130 years of history, many restaurants are currently offering a motorhome dinner. Nobody knows exactly who was the first to come up with the idea. It must have been late summer. Because at the beginning of November, Uli and Anette Kern were informed by a Berlin relative of the clever idea of a restaurateur. “We started that to compensate for the failures caused by the lockdown,” says hotel and kitchen chef Uli. And when the television reported about it after a short time, the rush suddenly increased. "Suddenly we got visitors from all over Germany."
It doesn't matter whether it is a beer garden or a mobile home
The couple clearly has fun entertaining the motorhome owners. The change wasn't that big. “It makes no difference whether we take the food and drinks out to the beer garden or to the mobile homes that are now standing there,” says Uli Kern. "Of course, all of this helped us to get through the pandemic."
In any case, word of the idea of the motorhome dinner spread quickly across the country and picked up speed again when Silja von Garn, a camper from Renchen in Baden-Württemberg, founded a Facebook group for this purpose. That group has almost 39.000 members today! An interactive map on “womo-explorer.de” now shows nationwide over 1.000 gastronomic establishments throughout Germany that make corresponding offers. Some only on weekends, some only in the evening. Here only with full menus, there also à la carte. Some only have space for two or three vehicles, others for ten or more. Or several bars come together for a major event and, as happened at the beginning of March in the Lower Saxon district town of Vechta, attract 130 mobile homes to dinner in the city center on a Saturday.
Easter dinner
With the exception of the day of rest on Tuesday, the Kerns offer the candlelight dinner every day from 17 p.m. Guests can only drive up for lunch on Sundays. And of course on the Easter days, for which the couple are already preparing and are hoping for a similarly good deal as they did three months ago at Christmas. As is so often the case on the weekends, they both expect to be fully booked on the holidays.
During our visit this time there were only five motorhomes as guests. Three in the inner courtyard, which easily accommodates five California-sized vehicles, and two alcove models on the side of the road in front of the restaurant. Because they fit, Anette Kern not only recognizes that at first glance, with the best of intentions not through the courtyard gate.