I leave it to the readers to find out why this Heuriger has a fire department (“Feuerwehr”) in its name. The only thing important to me was that this Heuriger had been there in Grinzing for as long as I can remember, yet it was only today that I visited it. That, of course, had to do with the fact that the tavern’s menu – conveniently displayed outside of the entrance – did not contain anything even remotely resembling a Brettljause. Until this year.
Had I known how nice the Wagner’s garden was (it’s not something you can figure out from the street), I would have visited it anyway. Another positive aspect is that being located slightly before the center of Grinzing, this Heuriger is frequented more by Viennese than by tourists, so I did not experience annoying musicians, sweets vendors or anything of that kind.
I experienced a rather plain Brettljause, however. Having only a few ingredients (Schweinsbraten, Geselchtes, Liptauer and two types of cheese), it even looked sloppily done. It was as if the waiter went to the cook to inform him about the order, and the cook quickly cut plenty of slices of whatever he had around him and dropped on a plate with the words, “Here, leave me alone now.”
There was plenty to eat – so much that the supplied three slices of bread were barely enough – but only the Geselchtes had any potential of leaving fond memories. The Schweinsbraten disappointed the most by tasting of almost nothing. On a positive side, the very cold Liptauer was quite pleasant thanks to its unusual temperature, but probably due to an accident rather than on intention.
Feuerwehr Wagner is a good place to visit with your friends who don’t believe that a Heuriger in Grinzing can still be relatively tourist-free. It’s hard to recommend it for its Brettljause, however.
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