A Viennese Legend Reborn: Meixner's Gastwirtschaft Under New Hands

This is what happens when you grow up with good food.

"I had my first beef tartare here," says Alexander Civic. "I was 15." Now he's back, seated at a white-clothed table against dark wood-paneled walls, the rustic wall sconces casting a warm yellow glow over the room. But he's no longer the teenage guest who, as family tradition dictated, was treated to a birthday meal at Meixner's Gastwirtschaft in Vienna's 10th district. Since December 2022, he and his wife, Janette, have been the hosts.

Both grew up in the area—Favoriten and Simmering, neighborhoods as vibrant as they are misunderstood. Anyone quick to compare them to New York's Bronx of the 1970s and '80s should sit down with the Civics first before repeating secondhand stereotypes.

"No more dangerous than anywhere else"

"I don't find it any more dangerous here than elsewhere," Alexander says. "And in all my adult life, I've always walked home late at night without a worry." Only once, he recalls, did a company cancel a booked office party because a few employees refused to travel back from Reumannplatz after dark.

A synchronized shrug. Outside in the taproom, the lunch tables are filling up.

Janette and Alexander Civic have spent their still-young lives steeped in the restaurant world. Their careers are paved with glamorous stints—though sometimes, perhaps, a little too perfumed.

Janette worked at fabio's, Cantinetta Antinori, Procacci, under Juan Amador, and at Le Loft. Alexander spent years at fabio's as well, followed by Eisvogel in the Prater.

And then… Favoriten?

Why not? The Meixner, after all, is a Vienna institution in a district once dismissed as a culinary wasteland. Then, suddenly, this oasis was up for grabs. In 2022, Berta and Karl Meixner—still spry but ready for life after work—began looking for successors. Conversations started. "At first, just half-jokingly," Janette admits. "Big shoes to fill," Alexander adds.

A brief detour. Karl Meixner is in Trieste, sipping an espresso. Retired there with his wife, Berta, at the northernmost tip of the Adriatic, he savors the Italian lifestyle—the mentality, the fish, the wine, the land. "'Second register!' You'll never hear that in Trieste," he chuckles.

He recounts how it all began. In 1967, his parents took over his aunt's inn near Reumannplatz. To set the scene, Karl notes: "Back then, they still heated the Amalienbad pool next door with coal." Laborers shoveling coal would stop in for hearty midday meals—rustic home cooking. By 1981, Karl and Berta had convinced his parents to retire. She took over the kitchen; he managed the wine cellar and the bar. Gourmet trips with pioneering restaurateurs like Martin Grünauer and Pepi Sodoma and their families fueled their ambition.

The first connoisseurs of Vienna's burgeoning food scene spread the word after tasting Berta's tripe with tomatoes, her crispy Grammelknödel (bacon dumplings), or her onion-studded roast beef. "Though Berta always swore she'd never marry an innkeeper," Karl pauses. "Guess she got unlucky."

Back to Favoriten. Janette and Alexander know full well the weight the Meixner name still carries. They decided to keep it, along with some of Berta's legendary dishes. A few veterans from the old team remain, too. Martina Pivonka, once a kitchen assistant under the Meixners, now runs it alongside Alexander.

"New dishes," he says, "are created as a team." Sometimes it's just "a little refinement" of the classics. The chanterelles à la crème now come with lovage-infused cream; the veal liver is served with an apple-onion sauce. And instead of traditional bread dumplings, Pivonka might shape delicate brioche dumplings. The spirit stays the same—just a little sharper.

Even the pass—the counter where finished dishes leave the kitchen, serving a purpose much like a mirror for one last check before a night out—now takes a little longer. "After all, we eat with our eyes first," Janette Civic says succinctly.

Alexander adds: "Eating well costs serious money these days. Everything has to be perfect because there's no guarantee a guest will come back."

Have suggestions for our local spotlights? Write to us at localspotlight@ourwebsite.