For two days every year, this famous “cellar street” of Vienna’s not-very-tourist wine district of Stammersdorf celebrates the “Stormy days” – the days when the entire street turns into a row of stands serving Sturm, sweet fermented grape juice, said to create a storm in the head if consumed excessively. Wine is served as well, and cheese, and some simple snacks, and all sorts of crap Vienna’s street festivals usually have (though fortunately no cheap sunglasses, wallets or heavy metal t-shirts). That’s how it was last year, when I first discovered this celebration (and the street itself): lots of young people, mostly locals, lots of interesting places to visit and drinks to try and a jolly, not at all annoying atmosphere.
This year, it was a zombie-town. Perhaps the cold weather was to blame, but more likely, because it was Sunday rather than Saturday, by the time I reached the street around 19:00, the whole festival was in the advanced stages of closing down. The number of policemen and paramedics – all bored – almost exceeded the number of visitors, and those visitors who continued to hang around were of senior, peasant-like and mostly very drunk types. Most probably, they were simply the friends of the stands’ owners, enjoying the last drops of Sturm from the bottoms of the bottles before helping their buddies to fold the tables and the benches, take them into the depths of the cellars and then drive the trucks with leftovers back home.
I could not find a single place that looked inviting; even the sign “Big Brettljause” hanging over an empty and very dirty stand did not excite me a bit. I was actually ready to take the path to the nearby Strebersdorf when I noticed a few people on the roof terrace of one of the houses and remembered a poster I saw a few minutes earlier, mentioning a new tavern called “Vino Cantina.”
In sharp contrast to the rest of the Kellergasse, Vino Cantina’s did have quite a few people inside, and having climbed a few steep steps to the terrace I was faced with what, during the day, must be a very beautiful view of Vienna. So late in the evening, a lot of invisible details had to be compensated by my imagination, but undoubtedly, the panorama from Vino Cantina must be quite spectacular under better conditions.
Their Brettljause was good enough but unspectacular. Perfectly matching its name, it was an Italian-inspired creation, featuring two types of salami, some ham, small cubes of cheese and plenty of olives, capers and Mediterranean vegetable snacks. Plus, an extra bowl of olive oil, totally pointless because all the rest was swimming in the oil anyway. One of the salamis was quite spicy and enjoyable, and the cheese had some taste, for a change, but generally speaking, I could have prepared such a starter plate in five minutes with all the ingredients bought from the nearby supermarket for one third of the price.
Vino Cantina is definitely not a late autumn or winter place, but I hope it survives long enough so that I can visit it on a warm spring or summer day and try its sausage or cheese plates, appropriately named “Alles Wurst” and “Alles Käse.” With its collection of good wines and a great location, Vino Cantina certainly deserves another chance.
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