Das Goldstück

Review

Plenty of room for rescue

The figures are staggering: around one million tons of food are thrown away every year. In Austria alone. When you consider that that's around 116 kilos per capita, it becomes a little more tangible. And of course it's not (just) your own garbage bin at home, but above all overproduction, sorting and oversupply on the shelves. So are we as consumers off the hook anyway? As long as we store in stores whose principle is to offer everything until closing time because we have become so used to it, unfortunately not. A few years ago, a number of initiatives were set up with the aim of saving fruit and vegetables that do not meet visual or logistical criteria from their fate as organic waste. One of these started as a pop-up two years ago under the name Das Goldstück: Christina Honegger and Alexandra Hilweg met while working for the Klosterneuburg local chain Karma Food, had ideas and, as Christina's father had just vacated an alleyway restaurant in Marxer Gasse, started a colorful, small, makeshift snack bar with an open kitchen. There, salvaged vegetables were turned into dishes that were very much inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi. With the promise: It took a little longer, but the place turned out to be really pretty: the gilded stucco of a former coffee house appeared under a ceiling, a vaulted cellar became an event room and cooking studio, all in all everything was very spacious, bright, a little Scandinavian, a little shabby, cell phone cameras love that kind of thing.
And because the principle of rescued vegetables requires a certain amount of spontaneity and flexibility, Honegger and Hilweg keep their menu small and change it daily: three cold dishes that can be combined in smaller or larger bowls. For example, a very good (and fortunately frequent) oven-baked vegetable with homemade hummus, a refreshing glass noodle salad with grilled vegetables and peanuts or spinach salad with lemon vinaigrette (€ 9.90/€ 15.90).
There are also two or three hot dishes, such as vegetarian lasagne with salad (€ 14.50) or a fairly mild, stomach-friendly broccoli miso tofu stew (€ 12.50), which perhaps shows the chef's Ayurvedic past a little too much. Christina Honegger says they are working on this, Ottolenghi is still a role model. A large, bright and pretty self-service restaurant where you can save vegetables by eating them.

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