Butter on a Stone

There are two mountains with cable cars on both sides of Bad Gastein, and as customary, there are restaurants next to each cable car’s top station. However, if you simply feel like taking a short(ish) walk and having a lunch or dinner with a nice view, both mountains offer good alternatives: Bellevue Alm on the slope on Stubnerkogel and Almgasthof Windischgrätz on the slope of Graukogel.

Windischgrätz, which in addition to being a restaurant also offers apartments to rent, has a spacious shady terrace and is easily reachable from the town center. Family-owned, the Gasthof offers very friendly service and a menu with varied and well-presented dishes. For a second, I thought of taking something warm and/or a salad, but finally my habits won, and I ordered a Brettljause.

Looking at the picture above, you are probably wondering what the weird irregularly shaped thing on the left side is. No, it’s not aged Jamón. Actually, it is a cold stone with an even colder – almost frozen – round of seasoned butter on it. Honestly, I have never seen butter served like that and can only applaud Windischgrätz for the creativity.

The same attention to aesthetics and quality was evident in the Brettljause itself. Although it did not contain any atypical ingredients, everything on it was fresh and tasty. The small size of bread slices encouraged mixing the ingredients to build tiny sandwiches of different flavors, which added a kind of artistic twist to my lunch. The two small green peppers deserve a special mention, for they were so spicy that I had to order one beer more than I had planned.

Windischgrätz’s Brettljause may not be as authentic as those one gets in the huts higher in the mountains, but it is certainly an enjoyable dish made with love. If in Bad Gastein, pay Almgasthof Windischgrätz a visit. Walking up the hill will make you feel you deserve a good meal, and the restaurant’s friendly staff will make sure that you do get one.