Food & Beer Culture

The Beisl is the Viennese tavern, small, dim, and with a regulars' table. The name likely comes from Yiddish, from the word for "house." There, a Krügerl lands on the table without much deliberation, and the menu holds just a few dishes that everyone knows.

The most famous is Wiener Schnitzel, which by Austrian tradition is a thin, pounded veal cutlet in a golden-brown breading. Vienna Lager fits because its crust note echoes the breading, and its bitterness cuts through the fat. It pairs just as well with Tafelspitz, boiled beef with horseradish and apple-horseradish sauce, and with Backhendl, fried chicken.

The Würstelstand is also part of beer culture. Here you'll find Käsekrainer and Burenwurst, mustard and bread, and a can of beer alongside. The sausage is salty and fatty, the beer cold and carbonated, and the two balance each other out.

The Heuriger, by contrast, is a wine tavern. In Ottakring it belongs to the neighborhood just as much as the brewery does, but there wine is poured, and beer plays a supporting role. The Beisl remains the place for the Krügerl.

Eating is done properly; drinking is done in moderation. A Krügerl often accompanies a whole meal, and anyone with just a quick thirst orders a Pfiff. In this way the beer sticks to the role it's held in Vienna since Dreher's day: a companion to food and conversation, drunk without hurry. At the Würstelstand at midnight, if nowhere else, you notice that this beer is meant more for sitting with than for toasting.