Catering

When are the meals served?

Breakfast is from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., lunch at 12:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30 p.m. Cake, coffee and tea are served daily (except for Wednesdays, when the hike takes place) from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. For lunch and dinner, the Institute’s bell will ring and call you to come. The menu of the week is displayed at the info point in the dining hall. Please clear the tables after the meals and put the tableware back on the service trolleys.

We ask all our research guests to consider the mealtimes in their daily schedule and to be on time.

Upon your arrival on Sunday evening we will serve sandwiches at 6:30 pm in the dining hall.

Do I have to tell you if I do not appear for meals?

Yes, please inform the guest services office in advance.

Can I request special meals if I have dietary restrictions?

You can choose one of five meal categories for lunch and dinner. Kindly note, that we need to know your choice prior to your stay. We offer a standard meal (may include all kinds of vegetable and animal products), a vegetarian meal (excluding meat, fish, and seafood; eggs and milk products may be included), and a vegan meal (excluding all sorts of animal products). Further on, we can consider non-celiac gluten sensitivity and lactose-intolerance.

We kindly ask for your sympathy that additional individual requests cannot be fulfilled. Note, that usually the meals aren’t served as plated portions and you can always decide how much you take from a certain component.

Kindly note, that although all meals are prepared with utmost care, to the best of our knowledge and based on information from our suppliers, we cannot guarantee meals being without traces of certain substances.

What about some fruits, snacks or sweets in between?

A fruit basket is available morning and evening at the bar in the dining hall. Additional sweet and salty snacks as well as some special diet products are provided at the cost prize in the cupboards on the right side of the entrance hall in the guest house.

Are there any other options for catering?

A bakery with some additional groceries, the restaurant “Hirschen” and the restaurant “Walkenstein” are in walking distance of the Institute. A supermarket can be found in Wolfach (8 km distance; the Institute lends out some bikes). Long-term participants usually have a refrigerator in their accommodation and can store own food items there.

Which drinks are offered?

Tea and coffee are available for free and can be obtained any time at the bar in the conference and library building and in the dining hall of the guest house. For lunch and dinner water will be served. Tea, coffee and juice will be served for breakfast. A variety of other beverages (non-alcoholic and alcoholic) is available at the cost price from the drawers at the bar in the conference and library building and in the dining hall of the guest house.

Is there a special seating order?

At breakfast, seats can be freely chosen. For lunch and dinner there will be a seating order. As far as possible, the seating arrangement is randomized for each meal in order to foster communication among all participants (in 1960 this arrangement of seats was taken to formulate a mathematical problem, the so called Oberwolfach Problem. You can find several publications on it on the internet). Kindly note, that sometimes it may be necessary to place participants with the same meal options together, in order to ease the serving.