Paul & Worthmann

Review

The pull effect

It's getting crowded at Kutschkermarkt. Every stall is occupied, with tables and armchairs taking up every available square metre to serve prosecco and grilled shrimps to the Währing bourgeoisie. It wasn't always like this. Over the past 45 years, the Währing district council has twice tried to close the market and turn it into a parking lot. Irene Pöhl, a delicatessen trader at Kutschkermarkt from 1979 to 2019, successfully organized the resistance. She also started selling snacks and drinks at a separate stall in 2010. Five years ago, Ines and Florian Mayr took over the Pöhl stall. When they had children, they decided to concentrate on delicatessen and give up the gastro stall. At the same time as Suat Takan, the market's hotspot since 2014 with his small Glaskobel fish restaurant, who will soon be moving to a larger, better-equipped stall and thus also offering his Kobel. Two stalls next to each other - Paul Rittenauer and David Worthmann didn't want to miss out on that. Rittenauer is known as a gastronomy consultant and operator of interesting pop-up bars, for example in the high-rise building in Herrengasse, while investor Worthmann has so far primarily devoted himself to Viennese gastronomy as a guest. The Takan restaurant will be given a little makeover by the end of the month. "Punks" chef Patrick Müller will provide interesting tapas there in future. The former Pöhl stand, on the other hand, is already being used as Paul&Worthmann, serving open-air Negroni & Co and sandwiches for the time being. Can that do anything? Yes, absolutely. Even if sandwiches with pastrami and coleslaw, with ox heart tomato and scamorza or with prosciutto, paprika and parmesan may not be the reinvention of the wheel, but for the pastrami sandwich, for example, they made a real effort with cold cuts from XO Beef, melted scamorza and fluffy focaccia from the (only Dutch-sounding) sourdough bakery Mel & koffie (€ 11.80). The burrata even comes from Alsergrunder mozzarella makers Fratelli Valentino, as does the antipasti range, and there are also perfectly roasted pimientos de padrón (€ 7.80). Of course, twelve-euro sandwiches and an eighth of a glass of wine for seven euros are less likely to attract students or classic market shoppers; this appeals more to the management and consultant level. But no matter how many young preppy men with values that are alien to us are attracted, the Kutschkermarkt will manage. Instead of Irene Pöhl's market soup, there are now pastrami sandwiches, Negroni and wines with big names. But snob panic is inappropriate.

More in Bar, Nightclub
Food & Drink in Vienna