Dumplings and pork cutlets with sauce are fixtures – today one can also have freshly made Tiramisu for dessert. Senior manager Eva Ederer is sitting in the middle of the cosy guest room eating lunch. She is more than happy to tell those interested one or two anecdotes: “We love this house! We never think about quitting.” Groggerhof inn’s thick walls are 400 years old. In the old days, the horse-drawn carts would stop here for the last time before going up Obdach Pass which gives the place a special atmosphere: Who knows who has come through the heavy wooden door in all these years? Quite a few actually, for instance Paula Grogger, the female counterpart of Peter Rosegger, whose novel Das Grimmingtor has been translated into many languages. She was the cousin of Ederer’s grandfather.

Grogger Eva Groggerhof

We love this house! We never think about quitting.

St. Clement’s Day Celebrations

Many employees of Pabst have also been here over the years. For this is where the annual St. Clement’s Day Celebrations take place on 23 November. “Every year, we look forward to this tradition from November to November,” Ederer says with a smirk. Every time, we create a new, designated menu. Later at night, we serve fried chicken and “if there were celebrations, we make scrambled eggs.” And when so many party-hungry employees come together, this is almost always the case. In any case, Pabst and Groggerhof inn have a special connection that has endured decades. “I, for instance, went to school with Reinhard Pabst. He was the best in maths and I in German.” Eva Ederer has even become a teacher later in life. “But then I lost six people and suddenly, there was no-one to continue operating the inn. No-one but me.” Today, her son is managing things and runs a pub in the back part of the house where many generations of Obdach residents have already partied their hearts out.

Groggerhof
Groggerhof

A different story

The mighty walls of the yellow building with its friendly blue beams at the windows have more anecdotes to tell, however. For example about the many Italian regulars who would come to the region to do business with Pabst but always stopped to see ‘Nonna’ (Eva Ederer’s aunt) and enjoy the best pork cutlets in the region. Or about the French racing drivers who came to take to the nearby race track but always loved the cosiness of Groggerhof inn. There would be more to tell – for instance about the genuine, hand-made Obdach buns that taste a little bit like Pretzels for outsiders or about Matthäus Offner, the former Abbot of the Admont Monastery Library, who was born at Groggerhof inn. But to hear those, you have to go and ask for yourself, when you are in the region and stop at the inn with its Biedermeier charm.