Anyway, ViennaA weekly newsletter
Worth Finding
Worth Finding7th · Neubau

La Mezcaleria — Mexican restaurant & mezcal bar, Neubau, the 7th

La Mezcaleria — Mexican restaurant & mezcal bar, Neubau, the 7th
The file
The practical details Claire checked before this went into the index.
Where
Zitterhofergasse 8, 1070 Wien — the 7th
Price
Restaurant prices
  • Indoor
  • Mexican
  • Mezcal
  • Natural wine
  • New opening June 2026
  • The 7th

La Mezcaleria opened on June 2 at Zitterhofergasse 8 in the 7th — a quiet side street in Neubau that you find by recommendation, not by walking past. It's a small restaurant and mezcal bar run by Arturo Castañeda Martínez and Mehmet Gayir, built around traditional Mexican cooking and a mezcal-forward drinks list. There are regional Austrian wines too.

Why This Matters

Vienna's Mexican food scene has been thin for years. Most of what exists leans toward Tex-Mex or the kind of place where the food is secondary to the vibe. La Mezcaleria is different. The cooking is serious. The mezcal list is serious. The Austrian wine selection suggests the owners actually think about what you drink with the food.

It's the kind of restaurant that doesn't need to announce itself because it knows who will find it.

The Menu

Traditional Mexican cooking — the specifics will depend on what Castañeda Martínez sources and what's in season, but expect the kind of food that takes time and technique, not shortcuts. The mezcal list is the other anchor. Mezcal is not tequila; it's made from agave in different regions of Mexico, and the flavour profile varies wildly depending on which plant, which producer, which process. A restaurant that leads with mezcal rather than margaritas signals that the drinks are meant to be studied, not just consumed.

The Location

Zitterhofergasse is the sort of address that rewards walking slowly. Nothing on the street is shouting. That's the whole mood. It's in Neubau, the 7th district — a neighbourhood that has gentrified carefully over the past decade without losing the texture that made it worth moving to in the first place. The quiet side streets are still quiet. The cafés are still cafés. A restaurant that settles on a street like this rather than a high-traffic corner is making a choice about who it wants to attract.

Source ↗

More in Worth Finding

Kapitel Zwei Wine — 10-winery Vienna pop-up, end of July

Kapitel Zwei Wine — 10-winery Vienna pop-up, end of July

When
25 July 2026 – 31 July 2026

Chris Sciacca spent 25 years in corporate communications in New York before pivoting to viticulture. He completed a degree at IMC Krems in 2024 and now runs Kapitel Zwei Wine, an organic microwinery in the Kremstal growing French varietals rare to Austria — Chenin Blanc, Roussanne, Sémillon — aged in 55-litre Italian amphora. He's previously organized two consecutive pop-up wine bars in Paris with 27 Austrian wineries; the Vienna edition brings the format home. This July, Kapitel Zwei is hosting a free 10-winery pop-up in Vienna. Exact date and venue are still being finalized — contact chris@kapitelzwei.wine for details before the event.

Read the note →
Altroché — Italian micro-bakery pop-up, Neustiftgasse, the 7th
7th · Neubau

Altroché — Italian micro-bakery pop-up, Neustiftgasse, the 7th

When
17 June 2026 – 31 July 2026
Where
7th · Neubau

Francesco Fusaro, an Italian baker committed to sourdough and handcraft, has opened Altroché as a pop-up on Neustiftgasse 81 in the 7th. The range is proper Italian bakery: vegan cornetti, Bari-style focaccia, pizza slices, sourdough bread — all made on fermentation principles by one person. The 7th has no shortage of cafés, but a serious micro-bakery run on sourdough discipline is different. Fusaro plans a permanent Vienna location after the pop-up closes at the end of July. Open now through July 31.

Read the note →
Sekki Pop-Up — The Leo Grand, Bauernmarkt, the 1st
1st · Innere Stadt

Sekki Pop-Up — The Leo Grand, Bauernmarkt, the 1st

When
26 June 2026 – 31 August 2026
Where
1st · Innere Stadt

Sekki is a three-month summer pop-up from Lucas 'Lucky' Shong and Jake Bergholtz, two of Vienna's most respected young chefs. They've taken over the evening service (Friday to Sunday, 6pm–midnight) at The Leo Grand's restaurant on Bauernmarkt 1 in the 1st district, running through the end of August. The menu is deliberately unpretentious — Kittseer sourdough, duck-butter, liver crème brûlée, Bergholtz's grandmother's apricot dumplings, Korean fried chicken — built from the network and experience both have accumulated across Vienna's best restaurants. The space itself is baroque and slightly kitschy; they're leaning into that rather than against it. It's the kind of kitchen that works best as a temporary thing, which is precisely why it's worth finding now.

Read the note →