A Bit of Art + Dessert in Austria.
There are a handful of Austrian restaurants sprinkled around the city, but none as cool as Cafe Sabarsky at the Neue Galerie. To my knowledge, there is no other place where you can see an original Gustav Klimt painting and have a bratwurst right after. My friend and I arrived at the museum ready to fulfill our dream of seeing Klimt’s best works in person. As busy New Yorkers, it is really hard to take advantage of the amazing cultural institutions we have at our fingertips. Our plan for the day was to absorb all the art, eat lots of food + take a stroll through Central Park which is directly across the street.
The Neue Galerie is a beautiful gallery/museum located in a huge corner mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan dedicated to many of Gustav Klimt’s works and a couple of other Austrian artists. For anyone not familiar with the name Klimt, you might recognize his works which feature beautiful gilded gold. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the paintings, but here are examples of his most famous pieces.
After walking through the gallery on an empty stomach we were famished and so pumped to eat at Cafe Sabarsky. The cafe is a gorgeous art deco-inspired spot located inside the gallery. The crowd who eats there is a mix of tourists + New Yorkers who look like regulars. We sat down and could smell the delicious Viennese coffee drinks + desserts that were lined up on a marble mantle under beautiful glass cloches. Sabarsky feels like a mini European vacation. It reminded me of the Parisian cafes I’ve been to with their fancy crisp white-aproned waiters, small intimate tables, and overall je ne sais quois factor that makes you wonder why Starbucks is a thing and laidback cafe culture isn’t.
The menu is quite varied and extensive. There aren’t any appetizers on the menu so we decided to get drinks to start. My friend ordered the holunderbeerensaft which basically is an elderberry drink + I ordered the holunderblütensaft which is an elderflower drink. Both are made with simple syrups, topped off with sparkling water, and very minimally sweetened. The elderberry drink had a very light berry flavor while the elderflower drink was more floral + perfumed. It reminded me of cream soda a bit.
For our main courses we shared the spätzle mit Schwammerln, erbsen, karotten, estragon which translates to spätzle with mushrooms, peas, carrots + tarragon and the weisswurst mit brezen & händelmaier‘s which is Bavarian sausage, warm pretzel, + mustard.
Spätzle is a type of dumpling/small noodle made with eggs and usually is featured as a side to meats. This tender spätzle floated in a creamy sauce that was lemony + herby in flavor. You could taste the tarragon which shined very brightly with each disappearing bite. I say disappearing because the spätzle was so tender that it basically dissolved in your mouth. That’s how delicate + fresh it was.
The weisswurst was an entirely different experience. Weisswurst is a Bavarian sausage made of minced veal + pork cooked in water until near boiling for about ten minutes which gives it its white greyish color. It is served in its own small tureen where it is usually served with sweet mustard and a pretzel. The sausage was very understated and soft. It didn’t have an overwhelmingly strong flavor like its cousin the bratwurst which is way heartier. Weisswurst is so understated + mild that it feels like a soft meat cloud in your mouth (also, never thought I’d describe food as a meat cloud).
Right beside the sausage was a delicious pretzel and a plop of mustard. I’m not sure if I’ve ever expressed this before but I LOVE PRETZELS. Like super LOVE pretzels. I really love the Bavarian kind you find in pubs the most, but I will eat Auntie Anne’s every once in a blue because who can resist?! Anyways! I’m getting distracted. This pretzel was a little heavenly dream. It was chewy + soft at the same time and had the right amount of salt. Seriously, the afterlife better have giant pretzels. The mustard was a nice homemade honey mustard that still retained its tanginess from the whole mustard seeds. I enjoy a good ‘ol mustard that’s still whole and not ground.
Last but certainly not least we ordered dessert. This was a first for me while Eating A-Z in NYC! I normally order appetizers instead of dessert which I have yet to eat any at the restaurants I’ve visited thus far. I’m also usually stuffed to the brim after eating so much food that eating dessert will make my top button burst open. When in Austria you must have dessert. They’re known to have beautiful bakeries lined with cakes, pies + pastries that must be eaten. Cafe Sabarsky had about fifteen different desserts to choose from on their menu which was almost too many and made it harder to decide. We eventually decided to try the linzertorte which is a tart with hazelnut and fresh raspberry confiture. The tart had a dense base made of hazelnut and its center was a jammy raspberry filling with a clear syrup glaze + crushed pistachios on top. The fresh whipped cream on the side helped cut through the sweetness of the raspberry filling. Every bite was delectable.
I felt like we had traveled to Vienna for lunch. We were swept up into the romantic overtures of people watching that usually happens in a cafe. You sit. You drink. You eat. You watch. The smells, sights, and sounds truly transported us until we stepped outside the front door back into our reality which is New York. If you ever want to travel without a passport to Austria I say look no further than the posh Cafe Sabarsky at Neue Galerie.
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Cook. Eat. Repeat.
Natalie
I wish I knew more about professional food terminology or something so I could actually say something a little more meaningful (haha), but all I can say is THAT LOOKS SO GOOD! I want to go to Austria so bad, and this just makes me want to go even more!