One novelty of this year’s VIENNA DESIGN WEEK was the educational format the Beisl Tour. Well-known Meidling faces took visitors on a tour of their favorite ‘Beisl’ or pubs – for where does one get to know a neighborhood better than in its pubs?

The special guest who was invited to lead the first of two Beisl tours was Stefan Zeisler, the art historian from the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, who has adopted Meidling as his home. Over a glass of sparkling rosé in the courtyard of the Festival Headquarters he told of the evening strolls through Meidling with his greyhound that take him past elegant, quirky, and historical watering holes. Participants were then able to discover these for themselves as Stefan Zeisler’s voice filled their ears via a headset. During the fully-booked and, despite the autumn rain, extremely jolly tour of the pubs, we were heartily welcomed to three beer gardens by their owners and regulars, all of whom had tales to tell about the district and the local gastronomic culture. The first stop was the pavement café in front of Wirtschaft am Markt – a unique, award-winning restaurant hidden between market stalls. The tour led on to Willy’s Beisl, an original Meidling restaurant, where the managers personally recounted the history of the design of the creative bar fittings. The final stop was Weinhaus Pfandler “Zu den seeligen Affen”, where we rounded off the evening between the timber paneling and the stainless steel bar of the original 1950’s interior.