When a restaurant in Salzburgerland calls itself a Heuriger, that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt (sorry for the unintended pun). You can find a real Heuriger in Vienna, Lower Austria or Burgenland. They also exist in Styria and Carinthia, though are more likely to use the word “Buschenschnank” to call themselves. But if you find one in Upper Austria, Tyrol or Salzburgerland, remember: these states hardly have any wine. (I would have added Vorarlberg to the list but I did see a vineyard in Bregenz and even tried the wine there.)
Goldbründl certainly does not produce any own wine. Located in the town of Tamsweg, it does not even have many tourists to visit it out of ignorance. The only reason I ended up in Tamsweg was my own ignorance as I thought it was a sort of a hiking center of Lungau, while in fact it turned out a place where locals from the surrounding villages drive to buy their groceries. But Tamsweg is rather close to Styria, and the restaurant displayed quite a few Styrian influences, particularly in terms of the wine it served and its super-strong Styrian horseradish.
I quite liked Goldbründl’s unusually dry Geselchtes, but the other ingredients more impressed by their quantity than quality. Each of them was represented by five or six slices, and though that would have been fine for sharing, having to manage them alone quickly became boring. The Schweinsbraten brought another challenge by containing a lot of concealed cartilage, whose removal required far too much work with the knife. Ten minutes into the meal, I was already tired of meat and turned to the salad that I ordered together with the Jause. Bizarrely, the salad was practically inedible because of the amount of pepper in it, making me want to sneeze each time I brought the fork close to my mouth.
There is nothing wrong about having a “Heuriger” in a non-wine area, but if Goldbründl was successful once, those days are long gone. If anything, the restaurant created an impression of one that would close very soon, with only a few customers inside and the waiters all but having submitted to their fate. If Goldbründl eventually shuts its doors, I have a feeling it won’t be missed much.
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