Mark: 1:14

And now you can download our podcast through iTunes.

Francis: 1:18

And just in case you don't know what much Mark's talking about with this whole podcasting thing, uh, it's great to hear us live on the radio and we love to keep you company between 11 and noon. But you can go to these podcasting sites, you can go to our website and find old shows and listen to them because. Some of you came in late in the game and you can get the reruns at Will. Good morning, mark. Good morning, Francis.

Mark: 1:36

How are you this morning? I'm doing great, man. Doing great. Well, doing great. I'm not in construction anymore.

Francis: 1:41

Yippee. The word is. The word is out. Uh, mark and I have traded in our construction. Hard hats for actual restaurant, although I did like, like the

Mark: 1:49

little, the cool little light on the top of it.

Francis: 1:52

It's a minor half by the way. And we weren't mining. Um, Catherine Lombardi restaurant is now open in downtown New Brunswick. Um, the reason we bring this up is not as an advertisement, though it is a bit of a shameless plug. But we've really changed from construction mode into restaurant mode. And, and running a new restaurant is very exciting. Um, and you still, you really are a jack of all trades, but a heck, I like it a heck of a lot better than, than, than managing a construction site Ype, because I'm good at this. I'm actually good at this, but the things that, that amaze me now, we've put almost 2 million off. You know what? It's,

Mark: 2:24

it's not, it's not even that. I'm, that we're good at it, Francis. It's that we know how to fix the problems. Exactly. And there are problems. It's a brand new restaurant. We have a lot of work to do before we get it to where we wanna go.

Francis: 2:34

I didn't say the restaurant was good yet. I said we, we've just opened and we literally, we don't have a sign that says we're open. We sort of snuck downstairs last Monday and open the doors. Uh, so if you come, so if you really would like to come out and have a perfect meal, try another restaurant. Come to Catherine Lombardi, states left is fantastic. You might another go to another restaurant in town. Um, Catherine Lombardi will be great in about a month. Um, and, uh. It's, but it's, the food is great and the room is beautiful, but what's, what amazes me is no matter how well you plan mm-hmm. If you do an original space, and this is why I think corporations can save so much money.'cause if you have a standard space that you build a million times in a million places, right. And

Mark: 3:08

it's exactly, it's identical in square footage. And you know, this is four feet from this, and this is three feet from this, and this is two feet from this.

Francis: 3:15

Both of our restaurants are in a 1925 building. That's a weird sort of triangular shape. I, I've

Mark: 3:21

elected to open a restaurant in a triangle. If anybody think, thinks that that's a good

Francis: 3:26

idea. It's horrible. And you get all these weird angles, these like

Mark: 3:29

shark tooth rooms that slice it, slice it, put it just for fun. Just go home and put a diagonal piece of tape in one of your rooms and try and rearrange your furniture rights. Figure out where to put the couch

Francis: 3:41

anyway, and the bookshelf and the television because you're always looking off at 45 degrees. Anyway, the things that amaze me are. We spent close to 2 million bucks. Right. And the restaurant is beautiful, but you know, there's that one place where the light didn't, didn't go right. We gotta put in two more lights. You

Mark: 3:55

know what I mean? The one I love is the, is the light that just goes to nowhere. Yeah. That point's on nothing. You're shining, you're shining up the back of a couch.

Francis: 4:03

S we moved something during construction but didn't move the light. Yeah, that's gotta change. The other thing we do is, you know, you spend 2 million bucks and. You put the electrical outlet exactly one foot further away from the appliance you need to plug in. You know what I mean? And you spend

Mark: 4:18

2 million like, well, because you spent$2 million, but you didn't measure the cord on the espresso machine. Everything's a heartbreaker. Yeah, everything's a heartbreaker. So you, they're tugging on the espresso machine hoping that it will just

Speaker 5: 4:29

grow an extra 12 inches.

Francis: 4:31

And my favorite story of all, and the thing about when you open a restaurant, a restaurant is regulated. As a general assembly use, which means that the fire codes are stricter because you have, you know, in an office building mm-hmm. In a, in a, in a private home, you have one set of standards in an office building that the public is going to be in. You have another set of standards in what's called a general assembly use, which is a, a restaurant or a theater. You have an even higher level of standards and that's, that's valid, but it's also expensive and it's also a paint. And on a second floor restaurant, and Catherine Lombardi is on the second floor, it's even higher. So, um, mark and I got into the first argument. We got it. We went through this year long project without one well, FUFU argument, and it finally happened. Day before yesterday

Mark: 5:13

about whether a set of curtains should be drawn or not drawn. We're not saying that the curtain should have been there or not been there. We're not saying

Speaker 5: 5:22

anything. You built 10,000 square feet of restaurant without, without much of a cross word Knock down, drag out. This was like, this was, you

Francis: 5:30

you're an idiot. You're an idiot. This was the, it's escalating in front of the staff. We're gonna go outside and go for a walk. Alright, so we finally get done with this ridiculous argument and we walked in yesterday morning. Our third partner, Lou was there. He's like, yeah, fire inspector was in this morning, have to take the curtains down, no curtains here. Can't have'em. It's a fire exit. That was God just telling us to be. Yeah. Yeah. He, God telling you and me to shut up, uh, I will, I will. Go ahead. I'll always remember the, um. When we opened Old Vines, we ran a wine shop for a while. Mm-hmm. Which we then, um, the, the demand for stage left restaurant became so great that we made dining room, my wine shop was eaten by my restaurant. So we, we opened Old Vines and we had a sign out in front of the, the storefront that said Old Vines Wine Shop. Mm-hmm. And I always remember I was walking into work and this was something that we didn't do wrong, but it was a guy, an old guy, an old New Brunswick guy. I see him on the streets every day, was just looking up at the sign with his mouth, a escape. And so I sort of sidled up next to him and I was looking up at the sign, my cup of Dunking Donuts coffee in my hand with my mouth, a gap. And I said, uh, what you looking at? And he said, uh, I can't believe it. They spelled it wrong. I said, what do you mean? He said, old wines, they spelled it wrong. And you know what he said, oh my God, I'm gonna go tell'em. That was old. It was old wine.

Mark: 6:53

And just to, so everyone gets inside our heads. Old vines, we believe, tend to make the greatest grapes. They make fewer grape, tend to make the greatest grapes, which make, make the greatest. But it wa it wasn't a misspelled sign. No old one. So it just a quick story about our latest construction foibles. Yeah. Uh, we still don't have draft beer in the new restaurant. You know, we're open for four or five days. Still can't get draft beer in the new restaurant. So I'm dealing with this company and I, so I call, I am like, listen, you told me you're gonna be here at 8:00 AM yesterday to, to, to get in. And the guy goes, oh, you talked to Joey C See, I'm Joey. S. So, you know, you gotta, you know, I, I do the best I can here, but Joey c you talked to Joey C he's the guy who, and so I've started referring to these two gentlemen as Joey, super sad and Joey Capol.'cause they are, because they are

Speaker 5: 7:45

two Italian pork products. See, you can do that'cause you're Italian. See me? I'm wanna get punched

Francis: 7:50

in the face. Maybe do something like that.

Mark: 7:52

But Joey, Joey s says to me, oh yeah, uh, we, we gotta install that tomorrow. Because why? You do, just why. Yeah. Well, Joey C told me you could. Yeah. Well, I'm Joey. S you, you could tell me the difference between us.'cause I'm the good looking one. Um, Joey s Yeah. I'm talking to you on the phone.

Francis: 8:15

I know what you look like. You have big gaba. That was close. That was almost right. I gotta, I gotta tell you, there's a place in Jersey sitting near my house that is, is um, well it's just a place that's all I'll say. And it's a place that serves food or something like it. And it's called. Gaba. Goz Gaba Goul. G-A-B-A-G-O-O-L-Z.

Mark: 8:37

That's hysterical. Gaba Goz. By the way, if anybody has heard the Sopranos or whatever, say gaba, go. That's a, that word starts with a C. It does start with a z Capa Cola.

Francis: 8:46

Yeah. I'm in all American Italian stuff. I'm learning. Operating your family's restaurant. I'm, I'm running about like gu, you know? Yeah. Starts with a C. Starts with a C. Starts with a C. That's definitely a C. Sorry. The other thing I love is the Italians who speak Italian, come to the restaurant and talk to the Italian Americans who like. Imitate the grandmother's Italian and it's slightly different. And you all have arguments about how to pronounce stuff. That's, and

Mark: 9:06

most of us are wrong for, for an

Francis: 9:07

Irishman. That's really an interesting thing to watch. All I have to worry about is spelling mistakes. Anyway, you're listening to the restaurant guys. We have a guest coming up. A gentleman named Peter Schlemer will be joining us by telephone from Austria to talk to us about Austrian food, wine, and the Michelin Guide and a flock of birds that is attacking Austrian grapes. My heavens, you're listening to the Restaurant Guy, Hey, you're back with the restaurant guys, mark and Francis from Stage Left and Catherine Lombardi Restaurants in downtown New Brunswick, and today we have a special guest joining us. Peter Schlemer writes for the Austrian publication Aria. He writes about and reviews wines and also restaurants in his native Austria and worked with American importer Terry Feast, sending some of the. Finest Austrian wine right here to us in the United States. He's our house expert on wine and all things Austrian. He joins us from his home outside Vienna to talk with us about the burgeoning culinary and en analogical love affair between our two countries. Hi there, Peter. Welcome back to the show. Peter, welcome back.

Peter: 9:59

Hello. Good evening. Uh, good evening in Austria. My good. Your

Francis: 10:03

evening. Good day here. Good

Peter: 10:04

morning in, in the States. It's great to be here with you.

Francis: 10:07

Well, vicariously anyway, or through the, through the telephone lines. Yeah. Hey, Peter, this call, not that I need a reason to call you, but in, in the spirit of full disclosure, Peter and Mark and I are are old friends. Um, but this call came about because I read, uh, an AP article, uh, that was based out of Eisenstadt, Austria, and I, and I wanna read from it. It says, giants. Flocks of hungry starlings have descended upon vineyards in Eastern Austria in scenes reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's. The Birds of Vintner told the Austrian media on Wednesday, the birds come every year in Bergen land, but this year the flocks are much larger than U usual said Vintner. Walter Kern Bauer. The birds attack every morning. It's like the Hitchcock movie quote. Uh, he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press,

Mark: 10:46

I read this, I was afraid for your life, Peter. I love that.

Francis: 10:48

I love this. It said Kern Barrel was not available for comment to the Associated Press as he was out in the fields dealing with the birds and employees said, what's going on, Peter?

Peter: 11:00

Well, uh, a short explanation. I mean, this, this is of course, this is a, a problem we have every year and it's, um, actually. Regional problem, which is, typical of the, the way eastern part of Austria, which where it borders, Hungary, and, um, that's where you have a warmer climate. You have a very large, um, population of various birds and so you, you have a lot of hungry birds there too,

Speaker: 11:27

Uhhuh. And,

Peter: 11:28

and the thing is that, um, in the northern part of the Boland, the, the province is called Boland. the growers have had these problems viciously, you know, fighting the birds for, for many, many years. And Mr. K Bower, who is located in the center of, um. Was kind of not expecting. you know, he's had these problems, but not, not in a, in a,

Mark: 11:52

not to this degree,

Peter: 11:53

not in a weird way. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And, and this year it's, it's been really bad. So, so they have been totally surprised and. Kind of frightened by the, by the flocks of birds that descended over the vineyards.

Mark: 12:08

So Peter, I would, I would expect that a grape fattened bird is very tasty. Why is this

Francis: 12:13

still a problem on a stream menus everywhere This Starling special is, uh, very cheap. Yeah. What, what do they do? I mean, are starlings good eat? Is there a way they should go out and shoot them?

Peter: 12:26

Um, well that's what they used to do actually. But, uh, a few years ago they were, um. Put under protection. So, uh, you're in fact not allowed to, to hunt them, which is, um, a certain problem. I mean, nowadays they, they use kind of, um, shooting machines, which kind of just, you know, give a loud bang, uhhuh every few minutes. And, but the birds, you know, they get really used to them. They're not stupid. They, you know, they love the grape diet. They love the sweet grapes

Mark: 12:56

especially. Yeah. Francis tried the same thing with me for a while and didn't work. I kept coming back

Francis: 13:03

right

Speaker 5: 13:03

by

Francis: 13:03

the

Speaker 5: 13:03

cellar. Bang.

Francis: 13:05

It worked for like a monk. What was that? Ah, well now just so we, we know what kind of stuff we're talking about. This isn't. Silly. Um, the Starling feasting on grapes meant to become Bergen Land Wines have caused damage this year, estimated between 96 and$120,000 to Kern Bauer. He said, that's a lot of money.

Peter: 13:24

It is a lot of money. Um, it's, and, and it's, you know, it's, it's a battle. You know, they're, they're fighting a losing battle in mm-hmm In reality, there are actually, there's very little you can do. There's one, um, pretty safe method, which is, um. Putting nets over the, the rows of vines. So you kind of, but this is extremely work intensive, and it's of course expensive too. You have to get these very fine mesh nets, nets to put over every row of vines, you know, and if you have something like, I don't know, 20 or or 30 hectares of wines, it's, it's. Great deal of work you have to put into, and a

Francis: 14:01

hector a hectare is about 2.2 acres, so that's a lot

Mark: 14:04

of land to cover. And then while you're, when you have to tend to your grapes or do pruning or do anything like that, you've gotta deal with the nets as well.

Peter: 14:11

Exactly, yeah. It, it, it hinders you in your work. And on the other hand. You know, it, it's, it's extremely work intensive to put them up too.

Francis: 14:20

So it's, I I have this vision in my head of Peter Schlemer stuck in a bird in a, in a burg line vineyard,

Peter: 14:24

Hey, did you see me last week?

Francis: 14:28

Like, being stuck in a fairy ring. So let, let's broaden the conversation a little bit though, Peter. I mean, I know we've been, we've talked before, you and one of the first guests on our show, but, um. So we can retread that issue. It's been, uh, we, we, it's been long enough in the past. I've even taken you off the archives. We'll get you back on again now. Um, now we see a lot of Austrian wine in the United States over the last 10 years or so. And I first met you when I came, first, went to Austrian, I guess it was 96. Would you say

Peter: 14:52

something like 96 or 97, something like that? Yeah.

Francis: 14:55

Well, now Austrian wine prior to that was sort of unheard of. And in the last 10 years it's come to be, I mean, if you don't have Austrian wine on your list, you're, you're not cool. All the cool kids are drinking Austrian wine. How did, how did that happen? How'd you guys invade the American market so quickly and become, you know, de reger of any serious wine restaurant?

Peter: 15:11

I think the main, the main reason is that, that we just have, um. Extremely interesting varieties. You know, we have, we have stuff other people, other countries don't have. And that's, that's the secret. You know, we don't, uh, Chardonnay is not a big thing for us. Cabernet Sauvignon is also a very small thing for us. We have great varieties that are just, first of all, um. Unique. And second of all, interesting too. It doesn't help if they're only unique and they and the wines suck. Yeah. That's

Mark: 15:40

very different. Well, I think one of the things about the Austrian wines is, is how food friendly they are and how food friendly they are with foods that. Are not usually friendly to wine, there's gruer, velt, leaner with, with salads and vegetables. Happens to be a very good mix.

Francis: 17:42

I wanna talk more with about the specific varieties of wines and maybe we can tell our listeners some things they can look for out there. We have a big wine, uh, uh, Austrian selection on our list, uh, on both our restaurants, but, but there are more and more. Affordable Austrian wines out there. We'll be talking more with Peter Schlemer Austrian restaurant critic and wine writer from RIA Magazine, from his home outside Vienna. In just a moment, you're listening to the Restaurant Guys, Hey, you're back with the restaurant guys. Mark Pascal and Francis. Shout of stage left in Catherine Lombardi restaurants in downtown New Brunswick. Our guest today is Austrian wine expert and restaurant critic, Peter Schleimer, who joins us from his home in Austria to talk with us about Austrian wines in general. You said before the break, Peter, that um, you have things that other people don't have. What meaning Austrian wines offer things that, that other places don't have. Like what?

Peter: 18:27

Well, um, our number one grape by, by far in quantity and often even in quality is, is a grape called Una leaner. And it is a white grape, um, that produces beautiful wines with um. Quite a bit of spice. And, and the, the, the fascinating thing about this grape is that it's, is its versatility. So you know, you can get wines that are rather light bodied that are just, you know, fresh and slug them down beautiful wines. And you can get extremely ripe, concentrated wines that are. Full bodied and, and with a great structure. So, and some

Francis: 19:10

of, and some of those, those higher end wines really do last a long time. I mean, we have a number of them in our cellar. They

Mark: 19:15

age and age. Yeah.

Peter: 19:16

Yeah. They age, they age extremely well. I mean, it's, it's amazing. I've, I've had the, you know, I've been, I'm, I'm the lucky person because sitting in Austrian, being a wine critic, I have in fact had. Wines back to the 1930s. Mm-hmm. Um, from this grape and, and they were from Nikolai Hope in this case. And it, it was just, you know, I was sitting there. Oh, I can't believe it. You know, it, it was so young. I think

Francis: 19:43

it's, it was the genesis of our friendship is that when I went to Austria, I went with about seven other American wine buyers in 96, I believe it was, and Peter was our host, uh, with a person who was showing us around. And actually the Austrian government had brought us over and, um. We tasted some of these old wines and, and the wine producing regions of Austria were occupied, uh, by Germany and then occupied by by Russia, and a lot of the wines were stolen. A lot of these great old wines were family treasures that were hidden in some cases thrown into lakes, so they would sink to the bottom of the lake and be preserved and then dug up years after the war. And these people were so kind to, to open some of these pre-war bottles for us, and I got to have them sitting at a table with Peter so many years ago, and they're mind boggling that something would last that long. I mean, do you, did, were there a lot of stories of people who hid wine from the, the, the Nazis and from, and then from the, um, the Russians as well?

Peter: 20:34

Well, sadly, um, not, not many of the these, uh. Secret wine depose, um, survived. Um, the, the Russians were pretty good at, at finding out, you know, where a new wall had been set up, or a hole had been dug, and, you know, where the people hid their wines and they, they actually, at that time, they, they went through the cellars and neither drank it all, or if they couldn't drink it anymore, they just kinda. Used their machine guns and, shot at the barrels and, and all the wine that's incredible was wasted.

Francis: 21:06

So Peter, did you see, is it big news out there that, um, the Michelin Guide, which is the, the the preeminent guide or restaurant guide in in Europe has started to review for the first time in American City, the Michelin Guide to New York came out. Has that made the news over there?

Peter: 21:21

Um, I've, yes, I've, I've heard about it, yeah.

Francis: 21:24

Um, now just, can you tell us how important the Michelin Guide is in, in Europe?

Peter: 21:29

Well, the Michelin Guide is certainly, it's, it's. You could almost say it's, it's the, the, the father of all guides, it, it, it would be the most respected of all guides.

Mark: 21:39

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, having traveled through Europe, even though there are some other, uh, uh, guides out there, gilo go, uh, GI Mic. No Michelin and, uh, go me goo is what I was trying to say. Thanks very much for your help. You know, mark actually really appreciate it. Gentle, the way to be there for me. Funny thing is Mark actually

Speaker 5: 21:56

speaks French.

Mark: 22:00

I just, I just can't speak is the problem. Not, it has nothing to do with language. It is, uh, but definitely, I, I mean, Michelin has been there forever and. And is the one that everybody looks to.

Francis: 22:10

It's, it's been described as incorruptible. Mm-hmm. And we, we even had that, there was a book written a about, uh, which in France is a statement. Yeah, exactly. Because everything's corruptible in France and then the, and the Michelin reviewers don't even go on strike. Um, anyway, um. The Michelin guide just came out, and here's an interesting thing in the New York Guide. Now three stars in the Michelin Guide is the highest honor that you can get, and it's really to be a three star restaurant is incredible. New York now boasts four three star restaurants and four two star restaurants. That's eight. The eight top restaurants in New York according to the Michelin Guide. Which is the preeminent international guide to restaurants. And one of the two stars, which means one of the top eight restaurants in New York City, is Danube, which is an Austrian or Austrian inspired restaurant. How crazy is that? How Peter, all that wiener, schnitzel. I mean, now Peter, you and I have eaten at Danube on several occasions, and I remember at least the beginnings of most of those meals. isn't it odd? we have three Austrian restaurants in, in New York that matter right now. 10 years ago. I, I I, if you said, where do I go for Austrian food? I couldn't have thought of a place in Europe. Yes, you could have

Mark: 23:11

Austria. How about Vienna? See, we'll see you soon.

Francis: 23:15

So, so what is this, uh, Austrian invasion going on of, of, uh, American, American restaurant scene? Peter, what do you think is behind it?

Peter: 23:22

Well, um, I, I just think, you know, Austria has, um, over the last two decades come to realize, you know, its its own qualities and, and has started to, Bring these qualities in culinary and, uh, you know, file sense to, to other countries. I think, it's a matter of, of kind of realizing how how good stuff you have at home and, and the stuff we have here is, is really good. I mean, the food and the, and the wine. It is really remarkable. It's unique and mm-hmm. And that's, that's why this is happening to my mind.

Mark: 23:57

And by the way, anybody looking for a great place to travel and visit, uh, obviously the skiing is spectacular in Austria, but the people are unbelievable. The countryside is unbelievable. It, it, it's just that the food is unbelievable. It's, it is a great place to go and visit one of my favorite countries in the world.

Francis: 24:14

The last time I was there with Peter, Peter, you took me to a church, um, which is actually in the city of Vienna, that close to Berg. Which, uh, actually has been making wine for How many, how long have they been making wine there, Peter? Forever. Right? Uh, 12th century. Yeah. You know, recent newcomers. Yeah. Um, but the question number is very old billing. They've been making wine. It's actually in the city limits of Vienna. And you can go and purchase wine there. They have some older vintages available. And the remarkable thing about Austrian wines is, is that they do age and these older vintages are often available. And there was an okay selection of, of, of older vintages available in the little shop around. And we got to talking to one of the people and then I dropped Peter Schlemer name and then even older vintages became available, which I really like. Um, but which is the only reason I hang out with you, Peter. I'm not, um,'cause he's a terrible bore everyone but. But we went up and, and I took a tour of, of the cluster with Peter and the woman. And, you know, Germans and Austrians have a, have a reputation in America being a little, you know, rigid or terse sometimes. And there was a woman who was giving the tour and she said that she showed me a particular piece of stained glass, which is one of the oldest pieces of stained glass in Europe. And she said something like, they said, now how old is that piece of glass? And she said. That glass is 400 years older than your country.

Peter: 25:28

I remember that one. Yeah. That was great.

Francis: 25:30

And I thought, and I felt scolded like a school boy and I, you know, he looked like a school boy at that point, but they gave me a glass of vet leader and everything was okay. Um,

Mark: 25:41

yeah, the, the Austrian do loosen up after a couple of glass of wine, no doubt about, and so

Francis: 25:46

does France do now. There has been a, a real resurgence, I think an interesting thing about Austrian wine. Uh, culture is, there were some scandals that, in a way, the silver lining to that cloud, to the cloud of some scandals. Was that the renaissance of, uh, Austrian wine quality? What about what happened with the scandals there, Peter?

Peter: 26:05

Well, um, in short it was, uh, um, it actually, it, it only, uh, had to do with, with, uh, low quality, low price wines and, and there was a lot of. Um, pressure on, on the, on some big producers to produce, uh, you know, wines at, at lower and lower price levels, uh, but with residual sugar and so on. So some. People came up with the fantastic idea of putting, uh, something akin to antifreeze into which tastes sweet, uh, into the wines to sweeten them up.

Mark: 26:40

Let's not do that. Okay. Peter, can we, can we stop that? Okay.

Francis: 26:44

So some, some unscrupulous producers put antifreeze into their inexpensive wine and they got found out.

Peter: 26:50

They got found out. the Austrian press kind of went, you know, ravaged over the whole thing and, and good, I I was gonna say good for the Austrian

Mark: 26:58

press. Can't really blame him, Peter, and then, no,

Peter: 27:02

it was a good thing. You know, I, for me it was all positive because we would never be. Where we are today if the scandal hadn't. Mm-hmm. Well, that's the most

Francis: 27:11

interesting thing. What happened as a result after the scandal? How did the Austrian wine industry, I mean, I think that's why I got invited to go to Austria, you know? Sure. On the, on the Austrian government. Sure. So we would

Mark: 27:20

believe in the wines again,

Francis: 27:21

but what happened as a, as a result of the fallout from that scandal? Well,

Peter: 27:24

you know, I mean, exports went probably down to something like 3% of what they had been. It was, it was, you know, really terrible for, for many growers and, and you know, I mean, it was. 99 point 99% of the growers were honest and never touched this stuff. Mm-hmm. But it was due to, you know, I, I think all in all, it was something like seven or eight people who were put in jail for this. So it was really a, you know, a tiny number of, of producers. And, um, the exports literally, you know, went to zero and, and everybody had a really hard time. The Austrian growers didn't, fall down and, and cry over what had happened. They just kind of, I don't know. They were, they were electrified. they tried everything to just reach higher and higher quality levels and they were very successful. I, I think the things that have been going on in, in Austria, as I say, were really, really remarkable. I, I've

Mark: 28:20

seen some huge changes in Austria and wine in the last 10 years. Well, it's, it's no longer just the top producers that are making great wine. Exactly. There's, there's, there are a lot of producers.

Francis: 28:28

Well, I also think there, there had to be a market shakeout from when your exports go down to zero. Anybody who was weak or who was under suspicion at all had to, had to fall off the, the. The radar, and if you wanted to survive at all, you had to be great. Now we've been talking about wines. Peter, let's talk about restaurants. You're a restaurant critic and actually. You've taken me reviewing restaurants, uh, with you, which is great, especially since your magazine paid for my dinner.

Mark: 29:17

Big fun. Big fun going restaurant, reviewing and having someone

Francis: 29:19

else

Mark: 29:19

pay for

Francis: 29:19

it.

Mark: 29:20

Love it. That's

Speaker 5: 29:20

super glad I don't have to do it six nights a week. No. Love doing it every once in a while.

Francis: 29:24

Now we've also, um, we've dined together at Dan U, which is a restaurant that received two Michelin stars in New York and the first ever at Michelin Guide in New York. And, uh, we had some great meals. There is that Austrian food. Or is that a derivative of Austrian food?

Peter: 29:41

That's, that's a, that's an interesting question. That's good. I'm putting him on the

Francis: 29:45

spot and he's

Peter: 29:46

afraid he says the wrong thing. Were gonna ask that. No,

Mark: 29:48

Peter does not want to be banned from Dan. Peter wants to get a reservation.

Peter: 29:54

So tell us. No, they, they do certainly have, have a large variety of, of really typical Austrian food. I mean, they have a great Venus schnitzel, for example. It's really, really good. It's even, even, I mean, and if I say this, don't misunderstand, but if I say it's even really, really good by Austrian standards, you know, I mean we, we, of course we think that we make the best food, you know, that is Austrian, right? In any case. But, but that is, so they have a large variety of that. That stuff. Um, of course they, they kind of, um, fusion it with, with some things that are not. As Austrian. I've had, for example, I've had octopus there and that would not be a typical Austrian,

Mark: 30:34

not a lot of octopus in Austria.

Peter: 30:36

No, not a lot. We lost our, we lost our, uh, last seaport in I think 1918.

Mark: 30:43

I was gonna say, those, those mountain rivers, they don't, they don't produce a lot of octopus for you. Oh, no.

Francis: 30:50

Well, you know, one of the things that's interesting, one of the things, Peter, that we are, we are wrestling with, we're opening this. This Italian American restaurant, and we talk about it all the time, and people may not realize this in the United States, when when you go to a restaurant, you go to a Chinese restaurant or an Italian restaurant, those almost never, if they're good restaurants are truly Italian. Because to have a great restaurant, you need to source locally. And you can bring in some stuff from abroad, but you need to deal with the food. That is where you have it. You can't ship everything in from Italy, let's say, and frankly, if you did, it wouldn't be fresh.

Mark: 31:21

Yeah. We talked, we talked with our staff. We said, listen, imported buffalo al, you know, is that really a good thing? Right, exactly. Do I really want my, my two week old shipped, you know, Edel from Italy, or would

Francis: 31:35

I rather have the edel that I make from local milk in that tradition? Right. Made an hour ago. You know, and I think that, I think that any restaurant in America faces that. But you don't have that in Austria. I mean, you don't have a lot of Chinese restaurants and Italian restaurants and, and, and things like that, or do you.

Peter: 31:49

Well, actually, we, we do, I mean, Austria has a, you know, strong bondage to Italy. Always has had, I mean, the, the favorite country for, for holidays is Italy, for the Austrian. So we do love the Italian food. We, but the, but the thing is, we don't have a lot of high end Italian and Chinese restaurants, especially Chinese. Usually it's just, you know, like. Um, noontime menu stuff that is cheap. And yeah, I, I gotta

Mark: 32:15

tell you, in my trips to Austria, I almost always avoid the Chinese restaurants.

Francis: 32:19

I avoid them too. And that's from a professional restaurant critic. Now, um, you know what's funny, what's interesting is Ireland is, is where a lot of my family is from, and most of my cousins who, who were born in Ireland, have returned to Ireland. And I visit them quite often. And there you see. All sorts of different ethnic restaurants popping up much like America because you have all these expatriates who've returned and if a local food culture that's. Well, not the best in Europe, in Ireland. And um, and I think I see, you know, Chinese restaurants and Italian restaurants and so and so forth opening up in Dublin and even in smaller towns around Ireland. And I think that's, that's a very different animal that we deal with here and they deal with there that when you have a native cuisine and you just have that native cuisine like you do in Austria, another big thing that you have in Austria that I thought was very remarkable. Is that you, you have a tremendous culture of coffee and whenever we're there, we have coffee and now you have Starbucks opening in Vienna. What are you doing? Why are you doing that?

Peter: 33:20

Is that going over big? I'm not, I I was actually planning to burn them down. No, not true, but it is. It is. No, it's, it's. An anomaly for us. It's, it's just crazy because our coffee culture is, is amazing as you know, Francis. Yeah. And, and you know, the thing in an Austrian, in a typical Austrian, um, cafe or coffee house is that you can. Go in there. They have newspaper, they have all the newspapers. You can sit in there, you can drink one cup of coffee and sit in there for two hours. Mm-hmm. Reading a newspaper. It's just great, you know, and, and this is our culture, you know, um, comfortable. Um, just layback, uh, you know, enjoy well,

Francis: 34:01

but also the coffee is tremendous. I mean, the tremendous care put into coffee and tea in Austria and I just, I, you know, Starbucks. Think Starbucks is okay, but I think it's very, it was just shocking to me to see that Starbucks got any traction at all that I could possibly

Mark: 34:14

overtake. Coffee. Are people going there? Coffee.

Peter: 34:18

Well, um, tourists go there and some of the young people, you know, I mean like students or something. Yeah. Young people

Mark: 34:26

are always looking for a new, new place to hang out. Something different.

Peter: 34:29

Yeah. But I mean, Starbucks is not the hip thing. I mean, honestly. Excellent. It's

Mark: 34:33

that's good news to us.

Peter: 34:34

Yeah.

Francis: 34:35

Alright. Alright, Peter, we only have a couple minutes left, but, but to be fair to our listeners, I want to give'em the name of say, three Austrian producers that they can look for, that they're likely to find and, and, and Peter works, right?

Mark: 34:45

Maybe some, maybe some of the bigger producers that they can find. And, and

Francis: 34:46

Peter works as a, as a, as a consolidator for Terry thesis, who's an and importer of Austrian and German wines and, and state bottle champagnes. And if you see Terry thesis name on the back label, that's always a good sign. But, but Peter, give us three producers that, that you would say that would be most widely available that people could look for to try something interesting in Austrian to drink.

Peter: 35:03

one would be, emerging, not only emerging a, a star rocketing estate in, in lower Austria producing mainly white wines would be schlosberg. Um, they make fantastic Lunas then, uh. For people who like affable wines with, um, for, just so you

Mark: 35:22

know, for most people in the United States, schlossberg is harder to say than Barringer. So we're gonna put

Peter: 35:27

that on our website.

Francis: 35:29

Okay. Two more producers.

Peter: 35:30

Okay. Um, for, for lighter affable wines, Walter Glatzer. Who is right in the vicinity of Vienna. He makes very good white and red wines. And for, for sweet wines, I'd, I'd go for something like, uh, Heidi Schrock.

Mark: 35:45

Heidi Schrock. Great wines. Great wines.

Peter: 35:48

And uh, that's, there you have three.

Mark: 35:51

Thanks Peter.

Francis: 35:52

Hey Peter. Thank you for joining us and talking to us about all things Austrian today. You've been great.

Peter: 35:56

It was a pleasure. Thanks for being with you.

Francis: 35:58

Okay,

Peter: 35:58

take care.

Mark: 35:58

Thanks

Peter: 35:59

very much Peter. Okay,

Francis: 36:00

bye-bye. That was Peter Schleimer Austrian restaurant critic and wine writer. And, uh, sort of Bon man, about 10. I'm Francis Shot. And

Mark: 36:07

I'm Mark Pascal. We

Francis: 36:08

are the restaurant guys, central Jersey 1450. The time is 12 noon.