Mutzenbacher | Disco Rustico

Austria gone Studio 54. When perched between red and white shutters and vintage wooden furniture underneath a boar's head decorated with glittery lights, it seems like the perfect description for Mutzenbacher, an Austrian restaurant in Friedrichshain's south.

Mutzenbacher toys with clichés to create an atmosphere that oscillates between coziness and irony. This rings true down to the name of the restaurant, which is an allusion to the (supposedly fictional) memoirs of a Viennese prostitute named Josefine Mutzenbacher, published in 1906. The memoirs are a piece of porno history and gained considerable fame through various screen adaptations in the 1970's.

But the fun and games stop at the kitchen door, where Mutzenbachers chefs whip up native cuisine with high aspirations. It includes Leberkäsesemmeln for a quick snack, Germknödel and Kaiserschmarren with Topfen ice cream and rhubarb for greedy sweet teeth, as well as classics like the Wiener Schnitzel with cucumber and potato salad.

(lmb)