Café Azzurro

Review

Second, first class

Many restaurateurs are complaining. Everything is so expensive, staff are hard to come by and guests are no longer what they used to be, they don't want to spend any more money or stay at home. Tough times. But we mustn't forget that millions and millions of euros in support have been blown out the back of the hospitality industry during the pandemic. And that in the past ten years, when credit was cheap, a huge number of establishments opened without a plan, concept or real need. Yes, there are far too many mediocre restaurants in Vienna that nobody wants to work in or visit, because why should they? Stephan and Christina Stahl, who run the charming Kommod restaurant in Strozzigasse, have no staffing problems, quite the opposite. Because they pay so much? I don't know, but probably because the atmosphere is informal, you get a chance and you are part of an enthusiastic team that is passionate about gastronomy. So much so that Stephan Stahl and restaurant manager Mara Feißt decided to open another restaurant. Not in the bourgeois Josefstadt district, but on the grungy Urban-Loritz-Platz; not in a historic bakery with century-old wood paneling, but in a former pizzeria. "We have such a strict concept at Kommod, with a menu, seasonality and origin of the products, here we just go for it," says Stephan Stahl. And it's very, very good. The menu is small, which doesn't make the choice any easier, because everything sounds great. Vegetables play a major role, as they are grown by a social farming project in the Vienna Woods. Offal has its place because nose-to-tail processing is a matter of course for the Stahls and Mara Feißt. Then comes juicy sourdough bread with whipped butter, into which Pinzgauer Schottkas (a kind of grated ricotta) is incorporated, taste without end, awesome (€ 2.50). The "Prager Tatar" is so named because they were inspired by a tartare experience in Prague, explains Mara Feißt, chopped by hand, pure and seasoned only with capers, served with a baked brown bread with garlic and melting bone marrow. Heaven (€ 14.50). If you take a closer look at the menu with the cocktail recommendations, there is also food on it, creamed heart, for example, delicious, laid out more like a Beuscherl, with gherkins and two delicious semolina dumplings (€ 18.00). Food should not be the focus here as it is at Kommod, explains Stephan Stahl, "but it should still make you happy". The exercise has been a success: a Gürtel pizzeria with scraped walls, where young, enthusiastic people create young, enthusiastic cuisine.

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