Luster Bar

Review

Second runner-up

Photo: Heribert Corn Where were all those people crowding into all those new cocktail bars before? At home? Abroad? The fabulous increase in the Viennese public is a miracle. Although: in this particular bar, which the Zweitbester people opened four weeks ago, it's probably more a matter of logic if the doors are being knocked down day after day. Because right opposite is the Apollo cinema with twelve screens and a total of 1860 seats, and the gastronomy available around it can be described as "tragic".
And the Zweitbester is currently one of the most expansive and split-off restaurants in the city anyway: two former employees ran the Pastrami Baby until recently, moved to the restaurant in the Alpenmilchzentrale in December, replacing another ex-Zweitbester (who will soon be returning to the family, but more on that later) and the former manager of the Zweitbeste branch in the Museumsquartier will soon be opening something new. But now to the restaurant: the two heads of the clan, Florian Egger and Vladimir Petrovic, have taken over a restaurant that has been a constant failure in recent years and already exuded a strong smell of hopelessness. As in Zweitbester, the architects Driendl gutted the restaurant, exposed the brick walls, inserted huge windows, placed a three-sided bar made of black marble in the middle and - giving the place its name and defining its style - hung a massive, six-storey and apparently walk-in grating bottle rack above it. This is very, very impressive and also makes the name of the bar - "Luster" - somewhat plausible. And not only that, one of the best bartenders in the city was brought on board, namely Marco Pani, who was already mixing great drinks at Bar Italia. Some of his iconic cocktails are also available here, such as the "Thai Massage", consisting of ginger and lemongrass flavored gin, homemade vanilla and chili syrup and lime juice - very fresh and a little spicy (€ 11). And if you add a portion of peanuts with garlic, chili and lime leaves, you could easily forget that the snowstorm is raging outside (€ 4.50). To go with the really big and really good pretzel hot dog with homemade Thai sausage, paprika relish and fried onions (€ 9.50), the chef recommends his "Bartender's Breakfast" based on coffee-flavoured bourbon, Italian vermouth, Campari and Pilsner beer, great (€ 12.00). And the Pilsner beer is from Bernard from Humpolec, one of the best Czech beers ever. And soon we'll be cooking lunch, too, from our former Alpenmilchzentrale colleague. In summary: yet another bar, yet another good style, yet another good meal, yet another creative cocktail. And full again. Luster 6th, Windmühlgasse 32 Tel. 01/264 23 64 Tue-Thu 5-2pm, Fri, Sat 5-3pm

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