Graz’s Secret Jause

If you, like me, live in Vienna, the chances that you ever visit Murheuriger are extremely small. It is not because it is in Graz – Graz, despite being the capital of a different state and the second largest city in Austria, is actually quite easy to reach, even by train – but because it is situated on the far outskirts of Graz, in a quiet residential area that most non-locals do not give a damn about. My visit to Murheuriger was a result of a failed hiking day, involving a completely wrong weather forecast, a poorly chosen hiking trail and a temporarily closed Heuriger that I had actually planned to visit. A quick Google search convinced me that of all the alternative taverns in the 20-kilometer radius, only the Murheuriger was open today, which made the selection pretty easy.

Murheuriger is a small place, with extremely limited indoor sitting area. On the other hand, there is absolutely no reason to sit inside, because the Heuriger’s main advantages are the closeness of woods and the Mur river. There were not many tables outside either, and I was lucky to find a spare one, while all the others were occupied by locals, most of them obviously frequent visitors. Despite “self-service only” signs on every table as well as on the restaurant’s wall, the friendly owner took all the orders and delivered them himself.

For a tiny place like the Murheuriger, its Brettljause was surprisingly massive and varied, though heavily biased towards meat. The liver spread and the Verhackert were particularly sizable and heavy, and once I finished them, I felt like having very little space left in my stomach. I slowed down then and eventually conquered the Jause, mostly liking it. Except the cartilage, bloody cartilage. I know that Schweinsbraten often suffer from it, so I could spot a few of those annoying white discs early on and cut them off, yet still ended up with a couple missed ones making unpleasant noises between my teeth. And when the Schweinsbraten was over, and I happily bit into the Speck, guess what – there was more disgusting cartilage in it, this time nearly invisible. My advice to all Heurigers: assume that people do not like cartilage and remove it by default. If you really want to be inclusive, add a little note to the menu saying that should anyone want cartilage, one only needs to mention that while placing the order. You can even charge extra for it and make some money. Maybe.

My advice to the readers is, order the Brettljause only if you are very hungry or want to share it; there are quite a few smaller dishes on the menu that may be more enjoyable. In any case, however, order a beetle bean salad with pumpkin oil. A Styrian specialty, it is one of the best things you can eat in Austria.