28 November 2019. First guests, a full house, an investment of 800,000 euros. A restaurant in Heidelberg for which we had given our all, and which was fully booked from the very start.
Two and a half months later: 150 guests on Saturday. Eight on Sunday. Then the lockdown.
What followed was the toughest time. Over €40,000 in fixed running costs per month, a team we didn't want to let down, and a concept that needed rethinking. The uuuhmami had opened in Heidelberg as a pure sharing restaurant. Large communal tables, everything to share. The concept was adapted. All the tables were sawn up and rebuilt. Tables for six became tables for two. The menu was rewritten three or four times.
What the uuuhmami is today emerged from this process.
Johanna joined in 2020 as a temporary staff member and stayed. The temporary staff member became a managing director who shapes the restaurant every day. Leander brought with him the perspective gained in the kitchens of Paul Bocuse, Daniel Boulud and the Schwarzwaldstube: that quality is an attitude. Ellis built the restaurant because he wanted to create places where people can truly connect, the "campfire", as he calls it. The place for a first date, a wedding anniversary, an evening that will be remembered.
Today, uuuhmami in Heidelberg is exactly that: a restaurant born out of conviction. And one that works every evening to live up to that standard.