57 Restaurant & Lounge

Review

The Spiderman situation

Photo: dctowers.at/Walter Sieberer To get to the bar of the Melia 57 - the hotel in the country's tallest high-rise that opened in February - you first have to cross a windy, barren square on which this black, 250-metre-high tower rises, awe-inspiring and yet somewhat menacing; then through an automatic sliding door, past the gigantomaniacally designed ground-floor bar to a desk in a dark corner. A lady stands there and asks what you want. You say: a drink in the bar, then the lady takes a key, uses it to open another sliding door, accompanies you to an elevator lock, into which she then sends you alone, sliding doors close behind you, an elevator door opens. No buttons, just an emergency stop and an indication that it's going uphill. For 25 seconds. You get out, follow signs through the empty restaurant (currently closed for the summer), which has a somewhat gray and gloomy atmosphere even when it is full, up another flight of stairs, finally there. Everything is black, gloomy. Gotham City. More delicate characters may have already encountered a small problem here, and those with a fear of heights should perhaps avoid this place altogether. There is a terrace around the bar, which has been accessible since May, although this sounds more spectacular than it actually is. This terrace is surrounded by a wall of steel and dark-tinted glass between six and twelve meters high. You feel more like you're sitting in a moat than on a terrace, but the view is of course gigantic. St. Stephen's Cathedral disappears, gray and small, into the mass of the city, Mexikoplatz seems so close you could spit across it, the wafer-thin white needle of the Flötzersteig waste incineration plant behind it, the Sophienalpe transmitter looks like it was implanted by aliens, the airfield begins to glow in the twilight. The Anninger seems like a local Viennese mountain, with the Belvedere and Schönbrunn nearby. A new bar manager, Markus Altrichter, who has also worked at Halbestadt and is regarded as one of the very best, has recently been hired. In addition to the classics, Altrichter also offers seven "signatures", which - with the exception of one - are all on the rather sweet side, with caramel, cookies and meringues.
So "Charles and the seven Tanquerays", eloquently described, thyme liqueur, Tanqueray dust, infused vermouth, "fantastic martini variation" ... Then came a sweet, light pink cocktail with Piedmont cherry and penetrating maraschino flavor, about the opposite of what was to be expected. It cost 16 euros and I've never seen such fat spiders under the red position lamps on the palisades. Summary: Finally a real high-rise rooftop bar. Unfortunately behind meter-high glass walls and with sweet signature cocktails. Melia 57 Lounge, 22nd, Donau City-Str. 7, DC Tower, 58th floor, Tel. 01/19 01 04, Tue-Thu 4-1pm, Fri, Sat 4-2pm,

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