Mere three days after spending an eternity chasing a Brettljause in Baden, I am back to this sleepy town of wealthy retirees. It is for another Brettljause, of course – the one I found by chance when pointlessly clicking on Heuriger markers in Google Maps. It is late and it is Wednesday, tomorrow being the last opening day of Weinbau Gehrer before a two-week break.
Gehrer calls its dish a “Leesdorfer Jause,” emphasizing that the Heuriger’s actual location is in the village of Leesdorf rather than in Baden itself. Although just a five-minute walk away from the Baden railway station, the Heuriger looks anything but Baden-ish. Wealthy retirees are gone, replaced by not-so-wealthy retirees drinking, smoking, playing cards and chatting with the owners. Absolutely non-tourist, Gehrer looks like a tavern where the locals go for a traditional dinner with their families or for a late drink with the friends. The setting is modest, the food and the wine are cheap, and the service is informal and friendly.
Their Jause was very simple but enjoyable. Supermarket-grade Tilsiter cheese aside, the ingredients must have been of local produce. The two types of Geselchtes were perfectly dried and salted and an absolute joy to eat. The Speck was great, too, but it would have been nice to see the two Speck types more different from each other. In this case, one type had a crust and the other did not, but the taste was exactly the same. The Liptauer, looking and tasting like thousands of other Liptauers, did not impress me, while the Schweinsbraten disappointed by tasting quite old. Three days ago I complained about Schweinsbraten not being “ripe” enough, but here I was faced with the opposite situation.
Good as it was, the Brettljause of Gehrer leaves a lot of room for improvement, starting with such a simple thing as adding horseradish and mustard. Some butter would have been great, too. And an egg. The deficiencies were partly compensated by the wonderful beetle beans salad with pumpkin oil, which made the Jause taste almost Styrian. If you visit Gehrer and have to choose just one dish, make sure it is the beans; the Jause is unspectacular.
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