Heunisch & Erben

Review

Drink more beautifully

Photo: Heribert Corn Peter Zinter is an unusual chef. In 2011, he suddenly appeared as head chef at Restaurant Vincent, when nobody knew the young man from Biedermannsdorf, but he cooked so well there that he won three toques from Gault-Millau in one sitting. His next stop was Motto am Fluss, then he became the kitchen director at the Charlie P's group: he revised the kitchen line of the Dining Room restaurant, launched the BBQ and craft beer eldorado Brickmakers and designed Slow Tacos as well as the current version of the open-air burger restaurant It's All About the Meat, Baby on the Danube Canal. He is also the father of three sons and breeds chickens and quails. Robert Brandhofer is also anything but your typical wine taster. Eleven years ago, he was actually still a coffee salesman and a passionate wine collector, then took over a really not particularly pretty café in Margaretenstraße, where he sold his wines, all of which are pretty great, for a pretty competitive price, with the only condition being that he himself gets a small sip from each bottle. A fantastic vinotheque soon followed and two years ago he opened a very relaxed wine bar on the Danube Canal for the first time - and met Peter Zinter. At the end of last year, the two of them decided to create a somewhat different wine bar together. They took over the former Sapori, an Italian delicatessen and osteria that had never been particularly sophisticated, and built a huge wine bar, a small bistro and two wine crate installations. And they made the only mistake in the whole thing: they didn't call the place "Ohrfandl", like the legendary wine house on the second floor above their restaurant, accessible via a staircase, adorned with huge barrel floors and sadly faded forever five years ago, but "Heunisch & Erben", after the original Eastern European grape variety to which almost all of our current grape varieties are related, alright.
Zinter cooks a few small, really unusual dishes here, Robert Brandhofer and Markus Gould put wines in your glass that you've probably never had before. Pear chutney with gorgonzola and puffed wild rice, for example, a small carousel of salty, sweet, sour, bitter, soft and crunchy with a Muskat Ottonel from Lichtenberger-González from Burgenland, the perfect combination (€ 4.50), or an hour egg from Italian egg guru Paolo Parisi (who feeds his chickens with goat's cheese) with cauliflower, buttered breadcrumbs and Belper tuber grated cheese - Oida! - with a 17-year-old Pinot Blanc from Jörg Brez (€ 12.50). All these things, all these wines. Food for the mind. Summary: A wine bar that is not primarily about getting drunk. It's about tasting exceptional wines with exceptional small dishes. Heunisch & Erben 3rd, Landstraßer Hauptstr. 17 Tel. 01/286 85 63 Tue-Sat 12-20.30 h< br/>

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