Many causes – landlord closes: ‘I don’t do that to myself anymore’

“We’re ‘hardening’ each other in the Kuchl because we don’t have the staff,” says Heinrich Scheiblhofer. The chef and landlord has been working at the bar of the inn “Tenne” in St. Martin/Mühlkreis for twelve years. Because he can no longer get reliable staff, he has already reduced the opening hours to three days. But he is also reaching his limits with this: “If someone wants to book lunch for 60 people, I’m not sure whether to say yes because I don’t know if I have enough staff. I don’t do that to myself anymore, I have 99 percent of the time,” says Scheiblhofer, who will retire on March 1 next year. The “Tenne” is expected to close, “unless a miracle happens”.

Much earlier, namely on September 30, the “Einkehr” in St. Martin closes in the newly designed city center. “Due to bankruptcy,” says Mayor Manfred Lanzersdorfer, who is looking for a successor: “We want to ensure that the market is revived.”

‘Not the salary, but the weekend is the problem’
The younger generation takes over in Gasthaus Wöhrer. “We’re definitely not going to lock it!” the company says. The bakery and bowling alley will remain and a gastro area will also be added. Only the hall of the former inn is separated, it could be used for the social space. “We’re thinking of a daycare center for seniors,” Lanzersdorfer says. The inn “Zum Brunnen” has also been sold, so it is uncertain what will happen next.

The mayor doesn’t want to hear about a “landlord who dies” any more than Thomas Mayr-Stockinger, spokesman for the landlord in Upper Austria: “The number of restaurants is the same, it is even increasing.” Because the next generation is taking over, the young, but let big traditional companies prefer theirs to bistros or street food stalls with less staff. Traditional rural gastronomy is going through difficult times: “The problem is not wages, but weekend work. Many people no longer want that.”