Beethoven and Shakespeare in Vienna

The pub where you can drink to both

A vintner’s bush and a sign commemorating Beethoven hang above the entrance to Mayer am Pfarrplatz in Vienna. Image: Ann Marie Ackermann

If buildings could publish best-selling memoirs, Mayer am Pfarrplatz would be one of them. Vienna celebrates this centuries-old winery and pub as one of its “most beautiful and celebrated places.” Beethoven lived here while he started composing the Ninth Symphony, and the place has remained unchanged since then.  So when you step through the arched gate into the winery’s courtyard, you are walking into the past – a fairy-tale hideaway of both music and Shakespeare.

But wait – Shakespeare? In Vienna?

Yes, in a way.

Shakespeare’s bush

A vintner’s bush in Vienna. Image: Ann Marie Ackermann

Shakespeare was never known to have visited Vienna. But he memorialized the “vintner’s bush,” a tradition still venerated in Vienna.

“Good wine needs no bush,” quipped Shakespeare in the Epilogue to As You Like It. The bard was referring to an ancient form of marketing. Vintners hang a bush – a bunch of ivy, a broom, or pine branches – outside their winery to advertise the sale of their own wines and simple food. And Mayer am Pfarrplatz is one of them. You can still find Shakespeare’s bush there today.

J.R.R. Tolkien wove the vintner’s bush into the opening chapter of the Lord of the Rings. At an inn called The Ivy Bush, the hobbits speculated about Bilbo’s upcoming birthday party. In Chapter 5 of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The White Company, the main character comes across a forest inn. “From one window there thrust forth a long pole with a bunch of greenery tied to the end of it—a sign that liquor was to be sold within.”

Another vintner’s bush in Vienna. Image: Ann Marie Ackermann

Austria – and many other European countries – continue the tradition today. A winery that does this is called a Heuriger in Vienna and Buschenschank in the Austrian countryside, although you can find Buschenschänke in Vienna, as well. They sell their own wines to make room in their cellars for the incoming vintage. Many countries support the wineries by allowing them to sell simple food along with their wines. They also waive taxes and fees for restaurant and liquor licensing. That makes the food very reasonable!

But there’s a catch: So that the wineries don’t compete too much with restaurants, they are only allowed to be open for a few weeks per year. In many European countries, each winery opens at a different time each year, so they have staggered opening times. In Vienna, you can find out which ones are open by consulting the “Ausg’steckt” (“displayed” – referring to the vintner’s bush) signs on the streets.

The “Ausg’steckt” sign. It reads: In 1784, Kaiser Josef II allowed each vintner to sell wines he produced himself. Since then it has been called “Displayed.” This sign and the bushes of pine branches guarantee that in these houses, only self-produced wines are sold. Image: Ann Marie Ackermann

Next to the “Ausg’steckt” sign you can find the names and addresses of the Heuriger that are open. Image: Ann Marie Ackermann

What to expect in a Heuriger

The courtyard at the entrance to Mayer am Pfarrplatz. Beethoven lived in a flat up the stairs on the left. Image: Ann Marie Ackermann

As you step under the bush and cross the threshold into Mayer am Pfarrplatz, you’ll enter a grape vine-bedecked courtyard with outdoor seating. Indoor seating for the Heurige is on your right. But what makes this place unique is the short staircase to your left. It leads up to the flat where Beethoven lived in the summer of 1817. His biographer Joseph August Lux described it as a lovely location on the quiet, sunny Pfarrplatz. The courtyard was overgrown with wild grapes, wrote Lux. And it hasn’t changed today. Those vines create a cool summer retreat with a green ceiling and dappled sunlight.

It was here, in the summer of 1817, that Beethoven began the first sketches of the Ninth Symphony. You can visit his flat today. It’s now a small Beethoven museum.

On the menu, you’ll find a selection of Heuriger wines, schnapps, coffee, and non-alcoholic beverages. You can order some salads, soups, and starters à la carte. But the highlight is a buffet sporting seasonal rustic fare like schnitzel, roast pork, and Austrian cheeses.

If you visit the Heuriger at Mayer am Pfarrplatz, you can raise your glass to toast two greats – Shakespeare’s bush at the entrance and Beethoven’s flat in the back.  “Zum Wohl,” as the Austrians would say.

Recipe: Beethoven’s Macaroni and Cheese

This was Beethoven’s favorite recipe: macaroni and cheese. Here’s my recreation of a 19th-c. German recipe. Image: Ann Marie Ackermann

It’s easy to pick a recipe to accompany today’s post. According to Anton Schindler, Beethoven’s acquaintance and first biographer, the composer’s favorite recipe was macaroni and cheese. It wouldn’t have been the modern Kraft mac-n-cheese we know from American grocery stores, but something more similar to German Käsespätzle or Swiss Älpermagronen. (His favorite wine was a white Austrian field blend called Gemischter Satz, by the way, and you can order it at Mayer am Pfarrplatz.)

I found a recipe in a 19^th-c. German cookbook for macaroni and cheese and recreated it. Note that old cookbooks didn’t always provide amounts and oven temperatures (they were cooking in wood-burning ovens that didn’t have temperature control dials!). I baked this at 180° C or 350° F.

Nineteenth-century mac-n-cheese recipe from Emma Rohr, Süddeutsches Kochbuch (Mannheim: Nemnich Verlag, 1888).

Macaroni with ham

 The title says ham, and it does have ham in it, but it’s really a macaroni and cheese recipe. Here’s the translation:

 Cook the macaroni in salt water and let it cool in the strainer. Chop ham and parsley into small pieces. Butter a baking pan and sprinkle bread crumbs over the butter. Then layer the macaroni and parsley-ham mixture in the pan. Beat three eggs with ¼ l good, sweet cream and 60 g Parmesan or Swiss cheese. Pour over the macaroni, mix, and bake until the noodles have absorbed the liquid and it is almost reduced. Remove from the oven, sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs, and return to the oven.

It tasted pretty good! I just might make it again for Beethoven’s birthday on December 17 and toast him with a glass of Gemischter Satz, if I can find a bottle here in Germany.

If you have ever dined at a Heuriger or Buschenschank in Austria, we would love to hear your experiences. Please comment below.

Acknowledgement:

Thanks to Clemens Keller from Mayer am Pfarrplatz, who graciously sent me the book Pfarr Platz Wirt Wein: The Story of One of Vienna’s Most Beautiful and Celebrated Places (Vienna: D+R Verlag, 2016) and provided me with background information.

Legal disclaimer: We disclaim all liability for the content of websites to which our site/newsletter provides links.