Schönscharf

Review

Fate, the sharp

Photo: Heribert Corn Are there many Austrian musicians who were already quite successful in the alternative charts and then opened a restaurant anyway? Rather not, but they probably don't come from a family of hoteliers in Fügen in the Zillertal valley like Hubert Mauracher, nor have they trained as chefs like Hubert Mauracher, nor were they intended as successors like Hubert Mauracher. Nevertheless, Mauracher has now opened his restaurant in Vienna and not in Fügen, which is good, firstly because you can now share in his passion for Thai cuisine here, and secondly because there is perhaps not such a large audience for Thai cuisine in Fügen. Hubert Mauracher gave up his career as a chef 14 years ago, founded the band Mauracher and became a permanent fixture on the local music and festival scene. However, the cooking thing was always lurking inside him, and a few months ago he decided he wanted to have a Southeast Asian restaurant. He tried to get an internship with Sri Gumpoldsberger, pretty much Vienna's only authentic Thai chef, but unfortunately the woman with the authoritative nature is quitting in September.
However, he found a place for his culinary project called Schönscharf, the tiny tube restaurant on Laurenzerberg, which was a farm snack bar for 46 years; Mauracher has already applied for an operating license with ventilation, hopes to be granted soon so that he can also cook hot food, and is making salads for the time being, "the hot summer was very much on my side". There are five places to sit or you can have your food wrapped, such as a glass noodle salad with cucumber, a little chicken, carrot, mint and peanuts, with a little basic spiciness, which you can of course increase a little with a spoonful of Thai chillies marinated in fish sauce and lime juice. Very fresh and very good, most of the ingredients - if he gets them from European cultivation - in organic quality (€ 8.50). The papaya salad wasn't bad either, but didn't come close to the glass noodle salad in terms of freshness and pleasantness; the fact that Hubert Mauracher also appreciates the spicy, coarse salads of north-eastern Isaan cuisine gives us hope, as does the fact that he will hopefully be able to cook hot food here at some point soon: "If you like red chicken curry, you should have Schönscharf in your head," the musician proclaims his motto. But not only that. In a semi-private setting, the tiny restaurant also serves six-course meals in the evening, not always spicy and definitely Tyrolean, with venison being the absolute theme. To sum up: Asian again, spicy again, but this time by musician Hubert Mauracher, to take away and only cold for the time being. Schönscharf 1, Laurenzerberg 1/18, Tel. 0660/507 75 70, Mon-Fri 11.30-15.00,

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