Gasthaus Automat Welt

Review

A little bit of Hrabal

Photo: Heribert Corn Georg Aichmayr is keen to emphasize that the Automat Welt restaurant is not quite finished yet. Of course, you don't notice much of this, and ultimately it doesn't matter, because it's finally open! It's finally open, and that took a while. It was 24 years ago, in 1991, that Georg Aichmayr traveled to Prague to visit the inns that the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal, whom he greatly admired, included in his books. He found pretty much all of them, except for the "Automat Svet", which had already been demolished, which is why Georg Aichmayr decided to make the "Automat Welt" himself. At some point. In the years that followed, the Freihaus, the Schöne Perle, the Nordpol and the Shabu came and went. And at some point, the "Na und?" on Volkertplatz was vacant and Aichmayr and his partner Martin Neumann renovated it. The old, fabulously beautiful bar from the 1930s was put back into operation; the unspeakable tiles were replaced with a wooden floor; the old Lambris was rebuilt true to the original; retro lamps were installed; a bookshelf with edifying literature and the "funghetto", aka "stubble billiards" table - already familiar from the Schönen Perle - were set up. What can we say: a full house, even though the craft beer menu is not yet available (which will be quite well stocked) and the menu has not yet been finalized, which, according to Aichmayr, will never be the case anyway because it is always changing and adapting. In any case, there will be more cooking than at Shabu, and it will be done by Maria, who previously ran the kitchen at Rebhuhn, but Automat Welt is still not intended to be a restaurant or inn. It's more of a city tavern "with good products that aren't served in a pretentious way". And with a certain focus on sausage, which cannot be welcomed enough: thickly sliced, for example, in the case of the incredibly juicy, fresh salami and the endlessly tender, air-dried pork from the Labonca farm, a pasture pig farmer in Styria that can hardly be surpassed in terms of exemplary quality (€ 8.90). Or boiled in the form of bison sausages from the Innviertel, such as a Debreziner, which is so tender and harmonious and wonderful, not at all as pushy and horny as usual, very good (€ 5.40). We also just had soup, a mighty, thick tomato and onion soup with coriander and basil pesto and spelt bread croutons - yes, that was a very good soup (€ 3.60). In terms of wine, the Weinviertel is of course very much in evidence again, and here are the special, good things, the beer will undoubtedly be great, there will be a garden soon, and on Sunday there will be breading and baking. To Bohumil Hrabal! Summary: Volkertplatz has its first really casual restaurant. With great sausages, good wines and extravagant beers. Automat Welt 2nd, Rueppg. 19 Mon-Fri 4-2pm, Sat, Sun 11am-2pm

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