I missed it last year but made it this time. Glad I did.If you live in the Stuttgart area or enjoy Instagram, you might have seen a lot of people from the area doing giveaways for Tisch & Tafel tickets. I did some digging and I think the organizers changed their PR company and I have to say I’m glad they did. Last year I was getting nowhere with information, and this year, they were more than eager to promote the event. And for good reason.
This venue though! Tisch & Tafel is held at the Alte Kelter in Fellbach (around 30-40 minutes away by subway and bus) and it’s gorgeous. It was built in 1906! That ceiling!
Thanks to the weather, it was a lot more pleasant to begin with. If you check my previous post about Tisch & Tafel, you can see everyone still wearing their thick winter coats, although it was around the same time frame. Being such an anything-lifestyle enthusiast these days, I found some familiar brands and sellers but also noticed some interesting new ones.
One popular form of produce in Germany is jam or any type of spread, both sweet and savory. Jams are a favorite, but pestos are also pretty popular. Die Trueffelmanufaktur makes everything truffle, from jams, pestos to oils. Delicious.
You can also find a lot of alcohol brands here, much newer brands two years ago, and I was impressed. Classics like Swabian Dry Gin and Kesselliebe but new ones (at least for me) such as Chocolate in a Bottle, MyEier, O’Donnell Moonshine, OAKED Barrel Aged Cocktails and more. I also noticed some famous brands were not present, such as Hochland, Kessler nor Monkey 47 (they actually opened a pop-up shop near Stadtmitte).
It’s inevitable to compare Blickfang and Tisch & Tafel. Like I mentioned, the size is completely different where Blickfang is much bigger and Tisch & Tafel much easier to see in maybe two hours. But while I find Blickfang somewhat overwhelming (both in size and content) as a consumer, the brands and products presented by Tisch & Tafel seem a bit more realistic. There’s much more to see at Blickfang for sure and I found a lot of interesting brands along the way, but how many times are you going to need to buy a new sofa or a new kitchen. If you are into discovering new brands all around the spectrum, Blickfang is indeed the place to be, but for a more relaxed lifestyle fair, I would say Tisch & Tafel is the way to go.
One question I have is: why sell samples? I understand that some brands are already established and famous, but I still don’t understand how some brands find the need to charge even for a sample. And to be honest, they’re clearly samples. Samples as in, “let me try this first and see if I like it before I actually buy it.” Is there a legal reason? Maybe I’m so used to American or Korean fairs and events where you pay for a tickets but once you get in, samples are free and you get a lot of freebies. For example, a 0.1 liter of champagne, which is clearly for the purpose of sampling, costs €5. A normal glass of wine costs around €6. What’s with the €5 sample? If anyone knows a reason behind this, please let me know because we were really wondering about it.
FYI, the same organizers are holding another event at the same location (hooray) in October called Speis & Trank and it’s all about food and drinks! What. Count me in, please.
- Die Trueffelmanufaktur
- Swabian Dry Gin
- Kesselliebe
- Chocolate in a Bottle
- MyEier
- O’Donnell Moonshine
- OAKED Barrel Aged Cocktails
- Vana Eis (So yummy!)
- Honigschlotzerei
All photos by rachelsanghee. April, 2018.