At the Capital of Culture 2024, Felix Schellhorn and his Healthy Boy Band collective together with chefs Lukas Mraz and Philip Rachinger have a plan: to celebrate Austrian sausage culture and acquire it fresh to show what you can do with it and how you can reach people in this way. Four interventions at different times of the year are on the agenda with their “Hot Box Building,” in which the three move out to pop ups in different locations.

However, they do not want to replace the Wirtshaus institution with this mobile model, Schellhorn anticipates: It is an additional concept. “A tavern should be a socio-political institution. A meeting place for people in a community, where discussion can take place.” For Schellhorn, the idea that a tavern is mobile and constantly changing is principally impaled with this mandate. Instead, you should think about the already existing tavern culture, he says: “How do you make it so that what you do in a place is not a UFO, but a Noah's Ark? “Make a good offer for people in the vicinity of the village: In return, you could and should definitely think of innovative things for taverns in order to (re) win people over. If possible, regularly, with affordable beer and food, and definitely plenty of time to be able to exchange ideas at the table. In rural areas in particular, you need a meeting place like this with stability on offer, he is convinced: “That is usually the heart of a place. ”

How do you make such spaces attractive for restaurateurs and guests in times of tavern death and thus create or revive a regional tavern culture? With good management, Schellhorn affirms, and an interesting offer, which of course can also include new things in the kitchen — that's when existing taverns could invite pop-ups from outside. In the sense of a mobile tavern.

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Felix Schellhorn is part of the Healthy Boy Band cooking collective and artist; he has been running the Seehof Goldegg family business since the end of 2023