Get Your Knudel On
Pretshof...
There is this amazing little restaurant (and farm, really) set in a high Alpine valley maybe half an hour's ride from Brixen in the Sudtirol just south of the Austrian border. The first time I was told about this restaurant it was referred to as the "secret" restaurant and not by it's name, Pretshof.
It's always fun to build a place up and still have your guests blown away with the experience. The drive to the restaurant sets the stage: one switchback after another in second gear climbing from one elderflower-strewn pasture to another higher pasture for fifteen minutes or so. We went past all of the animals and pens that were about to make up our lunch. After you find the parking for the place, you walk past the cows and the cheese works. Even with the amazing views it becomes apparent that you've arrived in a pretty darn self-sustaining restaurant and you begin to wonder just how long it's been this way...and then you recognize that this is the real origin of the restaurant business. The first time I visited here I had that epiphany. There is a great eternal truth of hospitality implied in a place like this. It is very easy to take in all the layers and layers of work and craft that go into "a nice lunch."
This place is an expanded and converted traditional Alpine farmhouse with a small bar and probably 50 dining seats indoors. Outside there is another dozen or so. Everything is rough-hewn pine and various local fruitwoods - walls, floors, timbers, banquettes. The origin of the place is (pure guess) c. 1840. There is no shortage of both Catholic and pagan figurines about. Seems they want to be covered, regardless.
Karl is the owner, chef, cellar master et al. In the States you would guess he was a retired defensive-end from the Buffalo Bills. (His hands are large enough to grasp most human heads like a cantaloupe). He's neither effusive or cold. He's Tirolese. Appropriate, no-nonsense and efficient and not without a certain style. He still always wears an apron in the dining room - I swear it's tied at the same height as my shoulders. I'm guessing people don't get out-of-hand here.
I chat with Karl about getting us started. They do fabulous cured meats, so he sends us multiple plates of cured venison, capriolo, dried venison, dried beef, beef carpaccio, speck, older speck, salame (pork and veal) and ridiculous venison salame. Also he sends the mountain mixed milk cheese they make (cow, goat 9 months). Everyone's favorite thing is this delicious spread of sorts - made with fresh farm cheese mixed with what he calls "grey cheese" both of which they make. This grey cheese is an aromatic and spicy blue of sorts. With all this business we quaff bottles of Hirtzberger Gruner Veltliner Smaragd 2005. (Marvelously fresh, white peach and green tea). Great start.
Next we organized dueling Knudels!!(Knudels are sort of dumplings from God) The first with Nettles from the farm - these had a marvelous herby freshness yet were still decadent served in puddles of brown butter; the next was with their mountain cheese mixed in. Super rich, yet not heavy. This was a truly decadent Primi...but then they tried to knock us out with Agnolotti filled with pork. All of these were served with a Hirtzberger Riesling 2001 that was a stunner; Karl's strong recommendation and the top white of the trip. Austrian whites can be breathtaking. It had the body, presence, freshness, complexity and reflexive delicacy to provide a marvelous counterpoint to the Knudels and sustain the course.
We had all chosen a variety of different main dishes: Roasted Ox, Pork chops, Lamb, Venison. But maybe the most surprising was what Karl described as "hamburger, their style" in his halting English (about on par with my Italian). This turned out to be a beef Knudel - death by Knudel for those that partook. We tasted a variety of reds with these dishes: a top-notch Lagrein from Joseph Mayr 2005 Riserva (while really well-made it cemented that grape as the Petite Sirah of Italy for me) and we had the 05’ Kurni - a truly singular 100 percent Montepulciano from Le Marche (crazy extracted, nuanced...needed an hour of decanting just to get it to raise an eyebrow at you) and a 96’ Barbaresco Gallina di Neive from Giacosa (lovely, perfumed, firm and classical - just beginning to drink now - funny for that to be the most feminine wine on the table.
For sweets we had a local Tirolese specialty: Krapfen...marvelously crispy little fried pastry filled with fresh cheese and honey served warm and dusted with sugar. A few solid espressos later and we were ready to hurtle back down the mountain and on to our afternoon appointments.
The Knudels had their expected effect - my crew was dozing by the time we got on the autostrada, heads lolling like ragdolls.
There is this amazing little restaurant (and farm, really) set in a high Alpine valley maybe half an hour's ride from Brixen in the Sudtirol just south of the Austrian border. The first time I was told about this restaurant it was referred to as the "secret" restaurant and not by it's name, Pretshof.
It's always fun to build a place up and still have your guests blown away with the experience. The drive to the restaurant sets the stage: one switchback after another in second gear climbing from one elderflower-strewn pasture to another higher pasture for fifteen minutes or so. We went past all of the animals and pens that were about to make up our lunch. After you find the parking for the place, you walk past the cows and the cheese works. Even with the amazing views it becomes apparent that you've arrived in a pretty darn self-sustaining restaurant and you begin to wonder just how long it's been this way...and then you recognize that this is the real origin of the restaurant business. The first time I visited here I had that epiphany. There is a great eternal truth of hospitality implied in a place like this. It is very easy to take in all the layers and layers of work and craft that go into "a nice lunch."
This place is an expanded and converted traditional Alpine farmhouse with a small bar and probably 50 dining seats indoors. Outside there is another dozen or so. Everything is rough-hewn pine and various local fruitwoods - walls, floors, timbers, banquettes. The origin of the place is (pure guess) c. 1840. There is no shortage of both Catholic and pagan figurines about. Seems they want to be covered, regardless.
Karl is the owner, chef, cellar master et al. In the States you would guess he was a retired defensive-end from the Buffalo Bills. (His hands are large enough to grasp most human heads like a cantaloupe). He's neither effusive or cold. He's Tirolese. Appropriate, no-nonsense and efficient and not without a certain style. He still always wears an apron in the dining room - I swear it's tied at the same height as my shoulders. I'm guessing people don't get out-of-hand here.
I chat with Karl about getting us started. They do fabulous cured meats, so he sends us multiple plates of cured venison, capriolo, dried venison, dried beef, beef carpaccio, speck, older speck, salame (pork and veal) and ridiculous venison salame. Also he sends the mountain mixed milk cheese they make (cow, goat 9 months). Everyone's favorite thing is this delicious spread of sorts - made with fresh farm cheese mixed with what he calls "grey cheese" both of which they make. This grey cheese is an aromatic and spicy blue of sorts. With all this business we quaff bottles of Hirtzberger Gruner Veltliner Smaragd 2005. (Marvelously fresh, white peach and green tea). Great start.
Next we organized dueling Knudels!!(Knudels are sort of dumplings from God) The first with Nettles from the farm - these had a marvelous herby freshness yet were still decadent served in puddles of brown butter; the next was with their mountain cheese mixed in. Super rich, yet not heavy. This was a truly decadent Primi...but then they tried to knock us out with Agnolotti filled with pork. All of these were served with a Hirtzberger Riesling 2001 that was a stunner; Karl's strong recommendation and the top white of the trip. Austrian whites can be breathtaking. It had the body, presence, freshness, complexity and reflexive delicacy to provide a marvelous counterpoint to the Knudels and sustain the course.
We had all chosen a variety of different main dishes: Roasted Ox, Pork chops, Lamb, Venison. But maybe the most surprising was what Karl described as "hamburger, their style" in his halting English (about on par with my Italian). This turned out to be a beef Knudel - death by Knudel for those that partook. We tasted a variety of reds with these dishes: a top-notch Lagrein from Joseph Mayr 2005 Riserva (while really well-made it cemented that grape as the Petite Sirah of Italy for me) and we had the 05’ Kurni - a truly singular 100 percent Montepulciano from Le Marche (crazy extracted, nuanced...needed an hour of decanting just to get it to raise an eyebrow at you) and a 96’ Barbaresco Gallina di Neive from Giacosa (lovely, perfumed, firm and classical - just beginning to drink now - funny for that to be the most feminine wine on the table.
For sweets we had a local Tirolese specialty: Krapfen...marvelously crispy little fried pastry filled with fresh cheese and honey served warm and dusted with sugar. A few solid espressos later and we were ready to hurtle back down the mountain and on to our afternoon appointments.
The Knudels had their expected effect - my crew was dozing by the time we got on the autostrada, heads lolling like ragdolls.
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