Everything Tastes Better With Villeroy & Boch
For many, Oktoberfest exists in shorthand. The world sees beer tents, dirndls and lederhosen, steins hoisted in unison. But anyone who has spent time in Munich knows the festival sits on a deeper foundation. The Bavarian capital has always carried itself with refinement: centuries of architecture that range from Gothic spires to modernist glass, parks and riverbanks that fold nature into the city’s rhythm, and a long tradition of craftsmanship that shapes everything from cars to ceramics. This backdrop gave context to Highsnobiety’s collaboration with Villeroy & Boch, a partnership that used Oktoberfest not as a stage for cliché but as a moment to explore heritage and design.
Villeroy & Boch is one of Germany’s oldest and most recognizable names in tableware, with a legacy that stretches back to 1748. Its pieces have set tables for royalty and households alike, always balancing functionality with craft. For Oktoberfest, the brand worked with Highsnobiety to create a series of bespoke plates and objects that would be revealed in a setting far removed from the fairground tents. The result was a dinner that brought together family, friends, and collaborators in one of Munich’s most iconic spaces: Schumann’s Tagesbar.
Schumann’s, founded by the legendary bartender Charles Schumann, sits in the Fünf Höfe complex, a high-end retail and cultural hub in the city center. By day, the Tagesbar is a meeting point for Munich locals, who pass through for a late breakfast, a business lunch, or an aperitif after work. The menu is minimal, focused on quality ingredients and precise execution. The design of the room mirrors that approach—pared back, functional, and stylish without being ostentatious. For the dinner, the space was transformed into a setting that felt both intimate and deliberate, ideal for showcasing objects built to last.
On the tables, the custom Villeroy & Boch plates framed each course. The plates underscored the idea that dining is about more than what is consumed. It’s about the ritual of coming together, the objects that shape that experience, and the memory they leave behind.
The food itself set a rhythm for the evening—bright and fresh at the start, warm and grounding in the middle, then indulgent and playful at the end. Flavors moved between Europe and Asia without ever feeling heavy-handed: cucumber and mint lifted the opening bite, pumpkin soup carried a smoky note of Japanese whisky, and mains offered both the generosity of roast beef with herbs and the elegance of a vegetarian mushroom ragù. Desserts closed the night with a wink of yuzu, tea, and chocolate, leaving things light rather than weighed down.
Schumann’s drinks program added another layer. Aperitifs opened the evening, followed by pairings that matched the progression of courses. Charles Schumann’s philosophy has always been that a bar should function as a social anchor. That ethos carried through the night as glasses clinked and conversations moved from design to music to travel. The Tagesbar’s role as a civic living room was clear, even in a closed-door setting.
What tied everything together was the city itself. Munich during Oktoberfest is at its loudest, with millions of visitors flooding in. Yet within that noise, there is space for something more focused. The dinner was not about rejecting the festival’s traditions but about reframing them. The collaboration between Villeroy & Boch and Highsnobiety acknowledged Oktoberfest as a symbol of the quieter, design-led reflection on heritage and togetherness made possible by the yearly celebration.
Want to learn more about Villeroy & Boch? Check out their website here.
