Inflation hits restaurants – the caraway roast was already on the collar

Certain dishes have now become too expensive, not only for the guests, the first restaurateurs also have to reduce their range. At the Peschtas inn in Vienna-Hütteldorf, the ever-popular caraway roast has been banned from the menu. To the chagrin of many guests, the amount of energy required to produce it is simply too great.

“I can’t expect customers”
“I should ask a few euros more for a portion, I just can’t expect that from my customers,” says restaurateur Thomas Peschta. And even with the lunch menu he hardly offers fried food, the oil is too expensive. In general, the innkeeper from Penzing tries to save as much energy as possible. “I have now also bought pressure cookers, so that I can keep prices at a reasonable level,” says Peschta.

And the upcoming Gansl season is also overshadowed. “I get nervous just thinking about how long the oven is on,” says the 40-year-old innkeeper. In general, there would be no more profit for him with the Gansl. “I have increased the price by five euros compared to last year, but that just covers the costs.”

“No support received”
Change of scene to Leopoldstadt. There, the Sperling im Augarten is now struggling to survive. Andreas Sael and Aurelio Nitsche and their 30 employees are shaking for the coming weeks, the most important time of the year for the hospitality industry. But the booking situation could be better. The pandemic has also taken the challenges to another level. According to Sael, the long closing times have made it difficult to build a captive audience. In addition, he radically renovated his restaurant during the period in which the subsidies were calculated.

“We’ve put so much energy and sweat into our project and it seems like we’ve been forgotten,” Sael said despairingly of “Krone.” He feels left alone and somehow tries to cover the higher costs. Not a good outlook.