JOIN the AFICIONADOS
Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.
For its eleventh winter in Vienna, the legendary restaurant Taubenkobel pop-up pulls into the Astoria Garage, a 1930s concrete tower with a snail-shell ramp and a glass dome. Barbara Eselböck and Alain Weissgerber are at the wheel. Billi Thanner is on lights.
Every November, as the fog thickens over Lake Neusiedl and the vines around Schützen am Gebirge go bare, the Taubenkobel flock leaves the dovecote for Vienna. Barbara Eselböck and Alain Weissgerber have made the 60-kilometre flight every winter for a decade, and each time they land somewhere the city never imagined serving a two-Michelin-star dinner: a tram depot in Meidling, the old Post Palais, Otto Wagner's theatre at Steinhof, the Volksgarten disco, an atelier in the Augarten.
For the eleventh edition, the dove has been fitted with a turbocharger. From 13 November to 22 December 2026, TurboTaube rolls up the ramp of the Astoria Garage in the Josefstadt, and the invitation signs off with two words we have grown rather fond of: bitte anschnallen. Please fasten your seatbelts.
The building alone would justify the trip across town. Cesar Karrer, the engineer and motoring pioneer who founded the business in 1918, began raising his tower at Trautsongasse 4 in 1935: six storeys of reinforced concrete coiled around a spiral ramp, with a glass dome set over the old fuel station. In its day it was billed as the most modern garage in Europe, with space for some 700 cars.
Then, for the better part of a century, almost nothing changed. Karrer's daughters ran the place well into their nineties. Attila Hörbiger reportedly kept his Horch jacked up here through the war years, and a 1962 Mercedes sat untouched from 1972 while somebody, identity still unknown, quietly kept paying for the space. When the garage closed in the summer of 2024, the patina came with it intact, which is exactly the sort of provenance the Taubenkobel likes to cook against.
Dinner is served on the first floor, on what the team calls the most spectacular parking deck in town. We are not inclined to argue.
The visual direction belongs to Billi Thanner, the Viennese artist whose light installations have a habit of rewriting the skyline. Her Himmelsleiter climbed the south tower of St Stephen's; since December 2025 her Unendlichkeit des Lichtes, a 28-metre aluminium infinity loop of 4,900 points of light, has hung between the spires of the Votivkirche. At the Astoria she draws glowing lines through the raw concrete, lane markings for long winter evenings, so the whole deck reads like a circuit after dark.
In the driving seat, as ever, are Barbara and Alain. At home in Burgenland they cook high gastronomy with Pannonian roots and, as their own announcement cheerfully puts it, scant respect for crash barriers. The credentials travel with them: two Michelin stars at the Taubenkobel, held again in the 2026 guide; four Gault&Millau toques; 98 Falstaff points; Alain named Gault&Millau Chef of the Year 2024; Barbara the recipient of the Michelin Service Award in 2025. We profiled the pair when the stars returned to Austria, and that story remains the best primer on the house.
The Vienna pop-ups have long since passed into cult status, partly because of the food and partly because of the names. Kobel is a dovecote, and the family have spent ten winters finding new things to rhyme with a pigeon loft: Brieftaubenkobel at the Post Palais, Lokvogel in an empty industrial hall, Wunderkobel on the Otto Wagner Areal, Diskokobel at the Volksgarten, Vogelfrei in the Augarten. Each year brings a new address, a new name and a menu where tradition and the avant-garde share the same lane, neither touching the brakes.
There are two circuits to choose from. Le Mans is the endurance race: five courses for €220, run every evening. Monaco is the short, glamorous lap: three courses for €120, Monday to Wednesday only and by advance booking. Both start from 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and both deliver you back to the street considerably happier than you arrived.
Christmas parties and private events can be arranged directly with the team, which in a building designed to swallow 700 cars suggests there is room for a fairly ambitious office outing.
The invitation asks guests to Stellplatz sichern, to claim their parking bay, and we would do so promptly. Book at taubenkobel.com, come by tram, and leave the driving to Alain.
|
What |
TurboTaube, the eleventh Taubenkobel pop-up in Vienna |
|
Who |
Barbara Eselböck and Alain Weissgerber; visual direction by Billi Thanner |
|
Where |
Astoria Garage, 1st floor, Trautsongasse 4, 1080 Vienna (Josefstadt) |
|
When |
13 November to 22 December 2026, Monday to Saturday from 6pm |
|
Menus |
Le Mans, five courses, €220 (nightly); Monaco, three courses, €120 (Monday to Wednesday, advance booking only) |
|
Book |
taubenkobel.com; events and Christmas parties via restaurant@taubenkobel.at |
|
Home base |
Taubenkobel, Schützen am Gebirge, Burgenland: two Michelin stars, four Gault&Millau toques, 98 Falstaff points |
When does TurboTaube open? 13 November 2026, running until 22 December, Monday to Saturday from 6pm.
Where exactly is it? On the first floor of the Astoria Garage at Trautsongasse 4 in Vienna's 8th district, the Josefstadt.
Which menu should I choose? Le Mans is the full five-course experience at €220, available every evening. Monaco is three courses at €120, offered Monday to Wednesday and only by advance booking.
Can I book a private event? Yes. Christmas parties and special events go through restaurant@taubenkobel.at.
Is this the same team as the Burgenland restaurant? Yes. Alain Weissgerber cooks and Barbara Eselböck hosts, as they do at the Taubenkobel in Schützen am Gebirge, about 60 kilometres south of Vienna.
Grand Kobel Vienna headlines the most talked about foodie popup on the culinary calendars, which will run for a limited 6 weeks only: November 15th to December 21st, 2019.
read more
Taubensalon Vienna headlines the most talked about foodie popup on the culinary calendars, which will run for a limited time only: 19 November to 22 December 2021.
read more
From Burgenland to Vienna, Taubenkobel’s VOGELFREI lands at Atelier Augarten, where Barbara Eselböck and Alain Weissgerber craft a poetic union of food, art and unbound culinary freedom.
read more
Vienna - Don't miss this culinary pop-up hitting Vienna this winter. An event by Austria's foodie legends; Barbara Eselböck and Alain Weissgerber of the famed Taubenkobel. Book your table at the "Lokvogel".
Michelin-starred Osip in Bruton, Somerset, from chef Merlin Labron-Johnson, pairs farm-to-fork dining with boutique rooms. A soulful retreat where food, design and Somerset terroir create a singular cultural escape.
There are the typical Vienna to-dos for any foodie enthusiast who visits Austria’s capital city; from classic cafés to innovative restaurants to ice-cream parlours.
read more
Two Michelin stars, vinyl spinning, and flavour turned loose — Mraz & Sohn is Vienna’s boldest table, where fine dining misbehaves beautifully and creativity dances between chaos and control.
read more
The Donauhof spent a decade coming back to life inside a 1902 Vienna building. Founder Cornelius Klimt on wine without dogma, the Sunday roast and generosity.
read more
Gothenburg's foodie scene has sprung up to international attention in the last few years - check out this guide for the best on Sweden's cosy 'Little London' coast.
read more
Marc Bernhart is the chef at the Weisses Kreuz Hotel in Burgeis, South Tyrol - a hip maverick who casts his flavour nets both close to home as well as wide.
read more
Chef Jonathan Burger, awarded the Michelin Green Star, is the likeable maverick behind the stoves at the legendary Hirschen in Schwarzenberg, a place that traces its hospitality roots back to 1755.
read more
Albin Widmann is Chef at the Seehotel Ambach, the cult lakeside refuge on Caldaro Lake's shores in South Tyrol. Dramatic nature, funky interiors, and an architectural landmark are also a famed bolthole for good food connoisseurs.
read more
Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.