Marco Simonis Bastei10

Review

The beautiful and the good

Photo: Heribert Corn At first glance, it's not quite clear what it actually is. It looks a bit like some kind of interior design store, everything so color-coordinated and ideally arranged in a feng shui way, shelves with beautiful glasses, bottles and boxes, an olive tree in the middle, display cabinets from which culinary light emanates from the delicacies they contain, like casually placed paper sacks with old potato varieties ... Boutique or do I really get something to eat here? You really do get something to eat in Marco Simonis' Bastei 10. Incidentally, this is the main difference to the young man's previous place of work, which was Frederik's, an exclusive upper-class catering company with a beautiful things store in Taborstraße. Simonis' new project Bastei 10 in a former printing works is a bit of a hybrid, or even more than that. Of course, it is still a place where people who are less plagued by financial worries can equip their dining rooms or find tasteful gifts for friends who already have everything else. But the class war alarm can be safely switched off again, because what is available here is fresh, good, sustainable, handmade, from small producers and quite affordable. And the fact that the store looks incredibly pretty should not be held against it.
On the shelves you will find a small range of organic cheeses, barrel butter, meat pâtés from a young newcomer from Mautern, non-homogenized milk in glass bottles and curd cheese with a natural fat content, single-variety olive oils, dried mushrooms from France, the limited Stiegl beer series, jams, juices, smoothies and chutneys are all made in-house, as are all the baked goods (except for the croissants, which come from France, and the bread, which comes from a small bakery in Krems). You can see this for yourself, by the way, because the kitchen and patisserie are behind a glass wall. The staff, almost bubbling over with friendliness, explain everything to you and their enthusiasm is infectious. Every day, the kitchen sends out two dishes, one vegetarian (organic vegetables from Essling!), one not. On this day, we had Salzburg veal shoulder, a ragout braised with carrots and Riesling, tender, juicy and delicious (€ 8.90). The cakes are baked continuously, by the way, and if you can resist a warm plum cake with a walnut base like this, I'd like to see it (€ 3.70). And the sandwiches are perhaps a little kinky in their packaging, with mesh and all, but they're insanely good. It certainly reminds me a little of Dean & DeLuca. To sum up: a new delicatessen that also cooks and bakes. And it's about as good as the store is beautiful. Marco Simonis' Bastei 10 1, Dominikanerbastei 10, Tel. 01/512 20 10, Mon-Fri 8-20,

More in Bistros
Food & Drink in Vienna