Ghörig

Review

Categorical imperative

Jeremy Auer and Alex Pezold have known each other since they were teenagers and went to tourism school together. Jeremy then went to Vienna to work in the catering industry, while Alex stayed in Vorarlberg for a while and made dialect hip-hop there, among other things. They had been dreaming of joint projects since they were 13, and then the street food boom of recent years suddenly brought a dish called arancini across the Alps: stuffed, deep-fried rice balls from Sicily.
"If you can even bread risotto, you should be able to do the same with Käsknöpfle," Auer and Pezold thought, developing a kind of Vorarlberg street food concept and giving it a name that no Vorarlberg resident could be indifferent to, namely "Ghörig": six letters that are practically the maxim for action in V-Berg, the western version of "normal", so to speak, but somehow much stronger in its determinacy.
The location they chose for their Ghörig restaurant is definitely not an easy one, Hernalser Gürtel opposite the drive-in Mäcki, where life is tough. The store, which had previously appeared as a wingman - the Korean chicken wing fry-up was unfortunately a touch too early to benefit from the K hype - was fitted out with a bit of graffiti and a blueberry Almrausch wall installation, a promotional hip-hop video was shot, and off they went. They made a bit of profit in the very first month, and with a program that can undoubtedly be described as exotic. Cheese dumplings with fried onions, for example, Riebel tiramisu, St. Gallen sausage and, of course, the aforementioned Ghörig Balls: cheese dumplings formed into balls the size of apricot dumplings, which are then breaded again, thrown into the fryer and served with apple sauce and cranberry jam. It certainly works, it has to be said, the relationship to arancini is obvious, although the cheese doesn't melt quite as sensually in this form of presentation as it does in the pan, and there is obviously no characteristically smelly grated cheese (€ 9.20 as a portion, single piece € 2.50).
And what is St. Gallen bratwurst? "You can get it at every soccer festival in Vorarlberg", explains Alex Pezold, a north-eastern Swiss specialty with a protected designation of origin made from veal and pork, calf's head, rind and milk, which forms a nice crust when fried. Very interesting (€ 5.90). To drink, there's Mohrenbräu, which the Ghörig men sell as "Ländlebier" due to a debate about correctness in V-Berg, as well as Marco Pogo's Turbobier. Is that ghörig? In the context of ... Vorarlberg street food on the Hernalser Gürtel, which may have conformity in its name, but actually stretches its boundaries.

More in Fast Food, Snacks
Food & Drink in Vienna