Four Hundred Years On the Same Stream

Most houses tell their history because they need one. This one was already standing when Sasbachwalden had eighty-four citizens and it has made it through everything since: years of hunger, auctions, hyperinflation and an authority that considered a café unnecessary.

When the Talmühle first appears in the records, Sasbachwalden had 84 citizens. Four hundred years later, it still sits beside the same stream.

The miller of the village complains to the authorities that Joseph Fallert has the audacity to mill grain and bake bread for customers – strictly forbidden by the bailiff. Two years later, Fallert then buys the Talmühle at an auction for 850 guilders, with the final bid. So begins the story of a family that started with forbidden bread and ended with a Michelin star.

Years of hunger ruin the mill, two auctions find no buyer. At the third, on December 24th 1850, the younger brother raises his hand. The Talmühle remains in family hands over the next 170 years and will leave it only once: in 1923, for 80 million inflation marks.

The Fallerts want to open a café alongside their bakery. The district office refuses: the need “for coffee and  non-alcoholic beverages” is already met in the village “to a sufficient degree”. In 1950 permission comes after all and the supposedly superfluous café becomes one of the first addresses for good food in Baden.

On Saturday, May 3rd 1968, Gutbert Fallert cooks his first menu: boiled beef brisket with horseradish. That same year, Café Fallert becomes Hotel Talmühle.

The restaurant is awarded a Michelin star and thereafter every subsequent year, forty-one years without a single interruption. Hardly any other chef in Germany has achieved this. Gutbert Fallert’s only comment was: ‘One doesn’t earn a star on one’s own, it requires a good team.’

After 71 years, the Talmühle closes its doors. To bid farewell, the Fallerts invite former employees and long-time companions, with no grand speeches. The house is bought by a man who had been a guest for decades: a co-founder of the Fallert Fan Club.

The Talmühle becomes Maison Talmühle, with new hosts and a new chapter written with respect for the seven chapters that came before. A corner beam from the old mill hangs by the entrance. It was already there when it all began.