Takeout and pop-up are two magic words when it comes to the pandemic. Instead of sitting down for dinner in a restaurant, you now get takeout from a pop-up place. Like #upperstreetfood, organized by the always creative team of the Hausbar. A bunch of young talented cooks from Upper Austria come to Vienna, cook up a storm for a couple of weekends and then head home again. It all started on March 12th and will be over by April 4th. So for four weekends you have the chance to eat something new and regional.
I missed the first weekend, but for the second one I got my time slot. The organization works like clockwork. You check in at the top of the stairs, wait your term and then head downstairs to order. Of course I had perused the online menu already, so I knew exactly what to get. Maybe next time I will bring one of the many drinks home with me, which twinkled at me while waiting to order.
a nice selection of drinks @Hausbar
We were hungry while discussing the menu the day before, so of course we bought way too much. One sandwich aka street food is more than enough per person. But we wanted to taste as many as possible, so it was four sandwiches for the two of us. From Lukas Nagl, who cooks at the Bootshaus restaurant, we ordered the ‘Sur – Sandoz’, a Tramezzini with a brined and breaded pork cutlet, cabbage, sour cream mayonnaise, and horse radish. Lovely bread, intense salty taste due to the brine, maybe not enough horse radish, but overall a very tasty sandwich.
‘Sur – Sandoz’ @#upperstreetfood
Also from Lukas Nagl came the ‘Mc Perlfisch’, a bun with a fish patty, chili, potato cheese, radish, chive. Unfortunately this one was wrapped, so I only have a picture of it after we have eaten half of it. What a great fish burger, I really loved the Austrian version of it.
Mc Perlfisch @#upperstreetfood
To be fair to the participants, we got two sandwiches from the team of Gasthaus Rahofer as well. The blood sausage Bosna was a feast for the eyes and for the stomach. Spring cabbage, horse radish, brined greaves, and mustard mayonnaise shared the bread roll with the sausage. I ate all of it in record time, maybe because it was also the first sandwich I had in hands.
Blunzbosna @#upperstreetfood
The other sandwich was a sourdough sandwich combo, which was my least favorite one. Not because of the filling though. The smoked celeriac root, radicchio, walnut, orange mayonnaise, and blue cheese was an exciting combination. It was the sandwich itself which turned out to be difficult to eat. Usually sourdough bread keeps crunchy for a week. But here it had an overly chewy texture, which made it already hard to cut. I finally left off the top part and ate the rest as open-faced sandwich. Still, the bottom part was difficult enough to eat. Too bad really.
sourdough sandwich @#upperstreetfood
Overall the #upperstreetfood pop-up makes for a wonderful change in the takeout scene. Really, some people even manage to turn a pandemic into a wonderful event. It’s always just a matter of perspective. However you want to see that, the Viennese now have a chance to sample Upper Austria fare. So don’t wait too long to get you time slot. I already booked mine for this weekend. Yours, Pollybert
#upperstreetfood @ Hausbar im Künstlerhaus
1010 Wien, Karlsplatz 5
E-Mail: reservierung@hausbar-wien.at
https://www.oberoesterreich.at/upperstreetfood.html
