Since it opened in 1994, the Salm Bräu brewery restaurant in Vienna has been popular due its beers which are brewed in front of the guests and the house speciality: grilled ham hocks.

Salm Bräu is situated next to the Belvedere Castle, former residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736). Today the Georgian Hall has replaced what once was a stable for the Empress's coach horses. The restaurant is in the former servants' quarters of the Salesian Convent, where its founder, Empress Amalia Wilhelmina, had lived. The walls, and especially the cellar, of the landmark heritage building bear witness to a long and colourful history.

Salm & Co was founded in 1924 by Georg Welledits and Otto von Salm. Welledits was a young technician working on brewing equipment. He had great plans and new ideas for the brewery industry. With industrialisation, steadily growing breweries required lots of new equipment.

All the company’s production facilities were destroyed during the Second World War. It took more than five years to repair at least a part of the company.

In 1978, Georg Welledits, the founder of Salm, died unexpectedly and his son, Walter Welledits, took over the management. He took the company’s products all over the world. On a business trip to London in 1980, Walter came upon a micro-brewery in a London pub and was amazed how successful it was.

He started a partnership with the English manufacturer of the equipment but in the end Salm started developing its own product. At the beginning there was simply a plain sheet of paper but with a wealth of experience gathered since 1924. Everything known to date was questioned and after three years of cost-intensive developments a system was presented to the world.

1994 saw Salm opening its own restaurant brewery, the Salm Bräu in Vienna, which is also used as a training centre for the company’s brewing customers. Originally planned as a simple training facility, Salm Bräu has subsequently become one of the best known brewery restaurants in Europe.

The beers are brewed according to traditional recipes combined with modern technology. All are authentic in taste which comes from using proper raw materials and brewing technology.

Now a Pair de la Chaîne, Walter Welledits, remains at the helm of the successful business which, with its 85 years of experience reflected in both its brewing equipment and in the beer produced with that equipment, is acknowledged by master brewers and brewery technicians around the world.

Always looking to the future, in the park of the Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna, just 200 metres from the Belvedere Castle, a new Salm gastronomic project is being developed. Called “Stöckl im Park” it will be a unique oasis of cosiness in the middle of the city. With a view of one of the most beautiful gardens in Vienna, customers will be able to enjoy life there in peace, whether during a relaxed breakfast in the morning or in the evening with a Krügerl from the in-house brewery.

Norbert Simon
Bailli Délégué