Demolition of a traditional Viennese inn – what is now being built there

The day before the staircase fell, Leo Amon IV went to the first floor again. To where he grew up. Where his family has lived and worked for over 120 years. His father was considered the most popular innkeeper in the third district, as was his great-grandfather “Amon’s Inn” It was baptized in 1904 and it was Leopold IV who had to close the traditional inn forever almost exactly three years ago. Not because business wasn’t going well, but because the house was too old and the renovation would have been too expensive.

“The last debris was loaded into the car seven weeks ago,” says the innkeeper. “Then they started.” First the yellow excavator flattened the winter garden, then the hall, eventually the staircase and now only the facade at Schlachthausgasse 13 remains. Leo Amon IV is emotional, but not sad. “We’re making something nice out of it,” he beams. “I’ll keep Amon there, Leopold I would be really happy if he saw that.”

Amon becomes Noma

Instead of hospitality, the Amon family now offers shelter. “The nice thing is: the entire property is owned and not encumbered,” says Leo Amon IV. 26 modern condominiums and 15 rental apartments are being built at the address where the coachmen and later the tram drivers once stopped for their getaway, where regular guests ate their schnitzels for over a century and where families held all kinds of celebrations, from weddings to baptisms.

Now new stories are being written in Amon, but under a different name. Noma (Ananym von Amon) is the name of the residential project, which is scheduled to be completed in autumn 2027. It’s a hell of a job that the host family consciously takes on. “I could have sold everything in bulk. But how would I have felt if I drove past in the car and someone else had made something that might not be nice at all or was just to make cash?”, says Leo IV, who, together with his wife Doris, has declared the Noma to be his “heart project”.

“My wife and I have really taken a crash course over the past two years: from landlady and landlady to building owner and building owner.” Doris Amon emphasizes that she is “not a real estate person”. “We are restaurateurs.” And you will feel that in Noma.

There will be a washing station for bikes and dog paws in the entrance area. The restaurant’s original wine cellar is to be reinstalled, with original furniture and a safe where souvenirs such as old menus are stored. The Amon family manages the reservation plan, “otherwise a mess will come out or someone will have a party and then something will go wrong.” And another hospitality project is being planned, but is still top secret. “Look,” smiles Leopold IV.

What there won’t be: A new Amon’s inn. Daughter Melanie originally planned to resurrect Amon at a new address in the third district. “We spent a long time looking for a business that would suit her,” reports Leopold IV. “But most of them were leased establishments where the landlord or landlady was retiring and of course wanted to take as much with them as possible.”

The transfer fees sometimes exceeded half a million euros, and proud sums had to be invested in the restaurant. “You’ll be working for nothing for the next ten years,” says the restaurateur, adding: “At some point the landlady and the landlady have to say goodbye. One door closes, the next one opens and that’s a good thing.”

The daughter found a good job and is very happy with her job. But the regular guests are still complaining to the landlords to this day because they miss their restaurant. “Amon’s Inn was a household name far beyond the district borders,” said district leader Erich Hohenberger last week at the project’s official groundbreaking ceremony. He, future apartment owners and well-known faces such as chocolatier Andreas Heindl and cathedral priest Toni Faber came to the construction site. For the crispy suckling pig, the Amon family and to secure an exclusive invitation to the wine cellar, where Amon’s inn will live on for decades or centuries to come.