Innsbruck
Alone

PRACTICAL SAMPLE

How Innsbruck Dining Works

The Tyrolean format of small wood-paneled rooms, small tables, and regional menus and wines accommodates one diner as easily as four.

Lunch is cheaper and less formal than dinner and often as good: the Mittagsmenü at many restaurants offers the kitchen’s main work at a discount, and a table for one is usually available on the day.

Ask about Austrian whites, Grüner Veltliner above all, plus Riesling, Welschriesling and local blends; the reds are mostly Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch from Burgenland and Lower Austria. Tyrol makes little wine, so lists lean on Austrian and northern Italian bottles.

When you book, ask for a small table near a window or against a wall rather than in the center of the room, which gives you a corner from which to read or watch without being on display.

A free excerpt from Innsbruck Alone.