Die Allee

Review

BBBBQ

Photo: Heribert Corn American bowling with balls with three holes. And the funny shoes. Like Lebowski. For the longest time you could do this in Vienna in two places, the Brunswick bowling hall in Hernals and the Brunswick bowling hall in Prater-Hauptallee, Americans liked to go there, and American bowling was also on the agenda for teenagers who had seen it in a movie.
At some point the Brunswick halls were called Strike, then soon Phoenix, and two years ago the very young Philipp Pracser, who already owned bowling halls in the Millennium City and in Linz, finally got into the business, modernized the old Prater hall, reopened it two weeks ago and gave it the name "Kugeltanz". And the old Brunswick Bowling Hall restaurant, where you could eat mediocre burgers, mediocre steaks, mediocre fries and mediocre pizza for decades and feel very American, also got a new name, new furniture and a bit of a new concept with "Die Allee": still burgers and steaks, but from the hot smoke of a BBQ smoker.
Last week, it was still standing unheated in front of the huge restaurant on Hauptallee and looked like a Lilliputian train locomotive that had been parked in the meantime, namely really: this smoker is probably either the same or at least an identical smoker grill that stood unsuccessfully for a few months a few years ago in a restaurant called City-Lok on Operngasse. It is a black, iron locomotive including a chimney, wheels and driver's cab as well as a few chambers in which the meat is to be cooked in hot smoke. Of course, not the 24 hours mentioned on the menu, which would be great, but would be "too smoky" for Viennese tastes, we are told, which is why it is first cooked sous-vide (vacuum-packed in plastic bags and cooked at low temperature in warm water for hours) and then placed in the spicy smoke for just one hour. Too bad. Last week was the soft opening, when the whole process took place in the combi-steamer. Too bad, but okay, there are a few interesting BBQ-styled burgers on the menu, with spare ribs for example (€ 12.80), BBQ chicken or pulled pork, whole meat is also available with smoke, as well as a few Viennese standards. Things get interesting when good meat from the Höllerschmid butcher's shop ends up in the smoker for a longer or shorter time, such as a Tafelspitz, unfortunately without a fat edge, but thanks to sous-vide cooking unusually soft, tender pink, unfortunately a little mildly seasoned (€ 16.80). But not bad at all, considering that this is pure mainstream. And hopefully they'll have the courage to smoke it more vigorously. Summary: A former bowling alley restaurant has been taken over and is now igniting the next culinary step. Still too good, but we'll see. Die Allee 2, Prater-Hauptallee 124 Tel. 01/252 09 Mon-Thu 10-24, Fri, Sat 10-2, Sun 9-24 www.dieallee.at

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