Café Menta

Review

Gentrify Radetzkyplace!

Despite its proximity to the city center, Radetzkyplatz and the Weißgerber district surrounding it have never been suspected of wanting to be cool or urban in any way. Well, the Gasthaus Wild, a pioneering project that is difficult to replicate, and the Indian restaurant Indus, which counteracts its modern concrete look with an Indian menu without any signs of culinary revolution, have caused a bit of a stir. But otherwise the local hegemony of tanning salons, nail salons and cell phone stores remained untouched - until last week, when Café Menta opened; before that there was a tanning salon. This might not be considered a worrying coincidence if one of the two Menta owners wasn't Ilhan Dogan. And Ilhan Dogan did many different things, including the Do-An on the Naschmarkt, which he had built in 1997 from a sausage stand opposite his greengrocer's store and thus gave the starting signal for the Bobo invasion. In 2000, he opened the Schöne Perle near the Karmelitermarkt, which nobody knew at the time. So if Ilhan Dogan turns a tanning studio on Radetzkyplatz into a chic café, it might not be long before the next microbreweries, direct-trade third-wave coffee roasters, zero-energy houses and bicycle repair shops appear. Café Menta has certainly turned out really nicely. Managing director and partner Selda Gürsesli and Ilhan Dogan had gray painted, industrial lamps installed, industrial parquet flooring laid, new table tops screwed onto old café table legs, Rainer city hall chairs placed next to them, a beautiful metal bar welded and beautiful cement tiles laid in the toilets. Selda Gürsesli says that the design is intended to stimulate thought processes. The menu will be interesting once it's up and running, the branzino sandwich, for example, which is modelled on Istanbul fish fryers, was unfortunately not yet in stock when I visited (€6). There wasn't much on offer at first, other things (such as the interesting-sounding tortillas) are only available for breakfast, the chef from Sardinia wasn't there yet, so no bill could be printed. But okay, the prawns fried with Turkish chili on soy noodles were nice; why soy and not real pasta is unclear (€8). And the chicken fillet in a sesame and mint crust on a shepherd's salad tasted really good, but perhaps should have been fried less dry. To sum up: the first cool place in the Weißgerber-Grätzel - nice, fresh, lots of breakfast, cocktails and soon a bit more to eat. Café Menta 3rd, Radetzkypl. 4, Tel. 01/966 84 23, opening hours: Mon-Sun 08:00 - 24:00, kitchen: Mon-Sun 08:00 - 23:00

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