The good old Grinzing seems to be undergoing a kind of a Brettljause Renaissance this season. Over the past few weeks I’ve been discovering Heurige serving Brettljausen, and mind you, had they been serving them before, I would have tried them already. If you live in Vienna and want to have a glass of wine with some sausage and cheese, the 19th district is the destination you normally think of first.
The Coronavirus may be to blame (or to thank) for this situation. With tourists all but gone, what is a better way to earn some much-needed cash than to serve a well-loved dish that is quick and cheap to make and charge a premium price for it?
Zum Berger did well to add a “Wine-maker’s plate” to the menu, because it was the only reason I was here today, although I must have passed by this simple Heuriger in the very center of Grinzing, like, hundreds of times. It’s actually quite cozy inside, looking less touristic than most of the larger and fancier Heurige around.
Its Brettljause… Well, if you are wondering where the English term “cold cuts” comes from, you will know after tasting them at the Berger. The dish tasted as if it had been prepared and then kept refrigerated for a couple of days. The cheese in particular is very sensitive to this kind of handling, because the thinly cut slices tend to glue to each other.
A cold Jause beats a room temperature Jause in any case, and there were a couple of things I really liked at this Heuriger. The bread slice, for example, was huge, very fresh and with a satisfyingly crunchy crust. The Verhackertes had a pleasant lightly smoked taste, the horseradish was strong, and even the black pudding was quite edible, in part thanks to its extreme coldness.
I can’t say that anything was extraordinarily good (or even above average for that matter), but being a midweek after-work “de-stress” Jause with no real expectations, Zum Berger’s offering has somehow worked well for me. I won’t come back soon, I guess, but I don’t feel like complaining either.
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