Warenhandlung Wenighofer & Wanits

Review

Take away or eat straight away?

Photo: Heribert Corn Perhaps we are currently experiencing a kind of paradigm shift. Perhaps an awareness has now actually manifested itself that it is not necessarily more expensive to buy sustainably produced food with moderation instead of industrially produced crap, half of which you then throw away again anyway. And perhaps we are slowly beginning to accept that a possibly slightly higher price can be justified by an effectively higher enjoyment and subsequently by an increased quality of life. The fact that the two sisters Stephanie Wanits and Christiane Wenighofer opened a new grocery store a month ago, selling exquisite delicacies with explicitly little packaging, is certainly an indicator of this longed-for trend reversal. The two originally wanted to open a café, but the plan was changed when this property came up, partly because the Grätzel was their preferred destination anyway. "Something is happening in the third district, the third district is on the rise," Stephanie Wanits is certain. The sisters' business model doesn't seem overly complicated: "Everything we would like to buy ourselves, everything we enjoy. That sounds a bit dangerous, but fortunately the two of them enjoy a lot of good things: bread from Gragger, for example, ham from Thum, cheese from the Bregenzerwald and from organic farmers in Burgenland, artisan mustard from Bad Aussee, pasta and sugo from organic pioneer La Selva in Tuscany, egg pasta from the Waldviertel, jam rarities from an ancient orchard in Guntrams, butter and sour milk in glass bottles from Langschlag, beer from Ötscher. If you want everything, you can buy it all and have much of it sliced onto a board on the spot - the Wenighofer & Wanits shop has a boutique-like feel and plenty of space for a table with eight seats. The Kipferln, Golatschen, Strudel and Buchteln on the baking tray also come from Gragger and are baked here in an oven installed by him, the coffee is from the Koffeinschmiede a few streets away and is really great.
And when you've nibbled from the board (€ 7.90), drunk craft beer (€ 2.50), eaten Buchteln (€ 3.50) and sipped coffee (€ 1.90) and also picked up some rock pear jam and sour milk, you're a little surprised - it costs a third less than you thought. To sum up: an enchantingly beautiful grocery store with lots of good things straight from the producer - which you can also eat on the spot. Warenhandlung Wenighofer & Wanits 3rd, Marxerg. 13 Tel. 0660/468 08 20 Mon-Fri 7.15am-6pm, Sat 8am-1pm

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