Anton's Tafel

Review

Grammel dumpling gelato

Photo: Heribert Corn Six years ago, Anton Rusnak, who was previously sous-chef at Fabios and had also worked at Palais Coburg, was cooking in a restaurant in Operngasse, which essentially consisted of a large BBQ oven with the format and appearance of a locomotive. However, the investor soon let him go, which is why Rusnak first cooked for the Canadian embassy, "but I didn't have the audience". From then on, Rusnak focused on the crowd-puller that is ice cream, so much so that he and his wife Irina eventually found themselves at an ice cream university in Bologna and took over an ice cream parlor in the center of Ober-St.-Veit last July. And that's where they made ice cream, 18 different varieties, with very little or no sugar, "I became a real ice cream seller," he says. But at some point, while boiling milk at six o'clock in the morning, Anton Rusnak thought to himself that ice cream and cooking didn't necessarily have to be a contradiction in terms. When the stress of the freshly delivered fruit eased a little in October, Rusnak started cooking again. In the ice cream parlor, with just a small menu, which didn't go so well at first, he says, because ice cream parlor and roasted meat don't go together so easily in people's minds. In the meantime, guests are well advised to reserve one of the few ice cream parlor tables. Yes, even in Ober-St.Veit, one of the most conservative corners of the city, where you sit in a suburban ice cream parlor that looks like a suburban ice cream parlor, are bustled around by a hurried waiter, choose a two- or four-course menu and get, for example, a homemade brawn of veal head with sour marinated pickles, lamb's lettuce and a light green chive ice cream, which may be a touch too sweet, but is definitely original (€ 14).
There was no ice cream with the Jerusalem artichoke cream soup, but two small brown bread toasts with hazelnut tapenade (€ 6), and the fried catfish was also served without ice cream, but that didn't bother us, because the crispy fried fillet with the snow-white meat (Rusnak sources the fish from the Dornau estate), the oven-braised tomato cabbage, a sour marinated apple and one of the best grammel dumplings in a long time was good enough as it was (€ 22).
The poppy seed ice cream with Powidl was delicious (€ 5.00), although it almost pays off to take a small selection from the ice cream display case (three scoops € 3.80), mango is really great right now, chocolate too, and the slightly salty pistachio ice cream anyway. Rusnak says he can't say how long he'll keep up the ice cream parlour pop-up, but definitely until the first herbs for the nettle and dandelion ice cream arrive. To sum up: a good ice cream man who is also a very good cook. And fortunately does so for as long as the season gives him time. Anton's Tafel 13th, Hietzinger Hauptstr. 174 Tel. 01/876 24 85 Thu-Sat 6pm-10pm

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