Der schöne Ernst

Review

One with ham, one with egg ...

Who knew the Hotel Capri? Okay, if you live in Vienna, Viennese hotels are hardly a top priority, but the above-mentioned hotel in Praterstrasse was definitely one of the most inconspicuous. In 1997, when Georg Pastuszyn's father took over the former guesthouse, it was probably even less conspicuous, as the Hartlauer store still occupied the lower two floors. Since he has been running the business, Pastuszyn junior says, he has been working continuously on making it more visible on various levels - be it with a breakfast that consists of 80 percent organic ingredients or with the renaming to Henriette in 2020. Most recently, he gave the hotel a new façade in cheerful colors, moved the reception to the second floor and opened a bar on the ground floor, which even the Viennese, known as hotel bar grouches, should not shy away from. With their "Der schöne Ernst", they want to offer a Viennese answer to the Milanese aperitivo bar, explains Mr. Pastuszyn. This may sound a little immodest, but its ambition is at least impressive: a glass façade open to the street, a somewhat overdesigned but very inviting bar and a drinks menu that attempts to give northern Italian sprizz aperitivos an Austrian component. The Viennese vermouth spritz, the Styrian apple spritz or the Swiss stone pine spritz, consisting of Swiss stone pine liqueur, lemon, Prosecco (from the barrel!), soda and a sprig of rosemary (€ 7.90) are served. There is also a Viennese version of the crostino or cicchetto, a sandwich that is as pleasing to the eye as it is to the palate and, above all, offers a solid counterpart to the barrel Prosecco or sprizz drink: For example, topped with Tête-de-Moine - the good old Schabe cheese, highlight of every cheese platter of the 90s - plus homemade grape jelly and pickled grapes, very good; or smoked salmon trout with horseradish cream, lime cream and pickled mustard seeds, quite irresistible; delicious and enchanting to look at is the leg ham-vinegar gherkin-salty yolk-horseradish cream arrangement. The roll with roast beef, juniper cream, parsley oil and pickled onions (all € 5.60) was a little bland. Restaurant manager Adrian Koller, who used to work at Sacher and Do & Co, among others, makes sure that the appetizers look proper. Georg Pastuszyn says that they hope to enrich the newly designed Praterstrasse with the Austro-Aperitivo. And that doesn't seem unlikely at all: Milanese aperitivo, only Australianized. What sounds a little forced becomes coherent and attractive in Schönen Ernst.

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