The weather can make a huge difference to one’s perception of a Brettljause restaurant. Had it been sunny and warm today, I would have certainly spotted a lot of visitors sitting and eating outside Pirchhof and joined them without hesitation. Cloudy and cold as it was, with still patches of snow here and there and only a few hikers on the Meraner Hohenweg, Pirchhof looked more like a farm (which it actually is), and it took me some courage to approach it in the fear that I was invading someone’s privacy.
A glance through the windows showed me a very much restaurant-like ambience, however: several set tables, most of them occupied by hikers with kids. The service was surprisingly efficient, the menu was quite extensive, and the restaurant’s facilities looked much better that one could have imagined from the outside. Later I understood that Pirchhof was also offering holiday apartments and was a well-known and highly rated location.
Visitors to Pirchhof can be forgiven for thinking they are in Austria rather than Italy. Very little showed Italian influence there, and the Brettljause looked more Austrian than any other I had eaten in or around Merano up to now. It was more varied thanks to different cheeses, a salami, and a homemade dry salty Bündnerfleisch (which is interesting, because according to Wikipedia it is rarely found outside Switzerland). It was served without the famous Schüttelbrot and even contained a very real and big picked cucumber!
I like the Marenden of South Tyrol for their simplicity and unequalled quality of Speck, but the Pirchhofbrettl is so far one of the best I have tried. Totally recommended – but check the weather forecast first.
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