CRUDO del MONTE OFELIO

Review

Italian summits

We might run out of space, so the sentimental eulogies will be very brief: when Luca and Dario Formisano, a pair of brothers who grew up partly in the hills north of Naples and partly in Vienna's Upper Augartenstrasse, it was precisely this that attracted Vienna's entire Italian community and astonished those of us who would love to be Italian. Recently, the Formisanos drew the short straw at the Marktamt bingo, defects were found and the Monte Ofelio had to close temporarily. "It was a good thing that Luca and Dario had just taken over the bar project from architects Tzou-Lubroth in the IG Bildende Kunst building.
The bar was converted in a rush, the bar was fitted with traverse lighting fixtures, which are also the Angewandte's installation artwork "Confession Karaoke", as well as a snack kitchen, in which incredible things are now prepared in a really small space. Luca Formisano explains that they used to get on their nerves with Prosecco, but now they have one made by a small Demeter farm. The label was designed by Peter Kogler, "a friend", who is very, very good. Especially the focaccia, which a Neapolitan baker bakes from black rice flour, black, crispy air, created to soak up the olive oil from the slopes of Mount Vesuvius (€ 5.50). Wonderful things lie in the display case. A Parma ham matured for 36 months, the only mortadella with the Slow Food seal, perhaps the best coppa in the world - you can have it all sliced for you (€ 7.00 to € 9.80). Or the small bruschette, two pieces per portion, with homemade baccala mantecato, with sarde in saor (without raisins, "I don't like raisins") or anchovy fillet on stracchino - it doesn't get any better than this in Venice or Bologna (€ 6.20 to € 7.80).
And then the things that come in every day, such as Sardinian spiny artichokes Roman-style, with pesto cream and plenty of pecorino, pure aroma, the dopamine floodgates wide open, or the Neapolitan beef roulade braciola, stuffed with pine nuts, herbs and cheese, simmered in red juice from San Marzano tomatoes, you want to scream, it's so good (€ 11.80). There's plenty of wine, and good wine at that. I want to go back. You can say what you like, but Italians simply know better than us where good taste lurks. The proof is in the Crudo.

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