The Postschänke is where it all started, I think.
Some twenty years ago, long before this site was even conceived, a colleague of mine told other colleagues of mine and myself that there was that little place in Vienna Woods that in November served the best goose around. For the ten years of living in Vienna before that, I had managed to remain totally ignorant about the whole Martinigansl tradition and thought that ordering a goose at a restaurant at any time of the year was just as easy as ordering chicken: one just had to ask.
The first visit to the Postschänke opened my eyes. (It also made me try Apfelschmalz for the first time in my life, and I still cherish those fond memories.) Since then, Postschänke closed and reopened under different owners several times. I don’t think that “Renate’s” in its present name was there five years ago, when I visited it last time. Not that this matters, of course. The important thing is the quality of the restaurant’s goose.
It was a happy reunion, all in all. Although in my memories, the Postschänke was always associated with cold and snow – there was indeed a year when I visited it during a heavy snowfall – today the weather was so warm that I could sit in the restaurant’s garden and enjoy the sun. Slowly drinking beer and reading some work-related stuff was surprisingly enjoyable, and I was almost disappointed when the goose arrived and interrupted me.
I cannot remember how the goose tasted 20 years ago, but today it was better than I had expected. The meat under the crunchy skin was a bit too dry, but at least there was no annoying fat. The sauce would have benefitted from a bit more salt, but the bird could have been perfectly edible even with no side dishes. Yet, it was the sides that made the Gansl memorable. The red cabbage was simply one of the best I had ever tried. Containing just the right amount of cinnamon, it maintained the crunchiness of cabbage salad while perfectly matching and enhancing the taste of the goose meat. Then, there was a baked apple, richly filled with sweet chestnuts and seasoned with more a generous portion of alcohol. The dumpling, on the other hand, could have been totally ignorable, but served a minor role of something to put the brilliant red cabbage on once the meat ran out.
This year’s early start of the goose season was therefore very promising. Remarkably, the Postschänke also offers a different, much more expensive “organic” goose, which is only available by prior reservation. That option piqued my interest, I must say, although the “plain” goose I ate today by simply walking in was more than satisfactory.
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