The distance from Dresden to Wachau is just over 16 km (as the crow flies), from the same point at Theaterplatz to Wachau about 321 km - also as the crow flies, of course. We'd rather drive to Wachau and have the drinks brought or (if you must) served to us from Wachau. This works quite well in the context of the Kochsternstunden, because in the Gasthof zum Anker (Wachau, Saxony), which only reopened last November, there is a four-course menu in which the drinks come from Austria - not only, but also from the Wachau. The fact that Conrad Schröpel, a native of Zittau who worked for 14 years in Vienna in a boutique hotel with its own (good!) wine bar - almost ten of them as manager of the establishment - is in charge of service rounds off the experience: a Wachau vacation, so to speak, all-encompassing.
In the kitchen is Robert Müller, whose partner Anja Sperling, has leased the inn (including a seven-room boutique hotel and event locations from vaulted cellar to ballroom). They both have gastronomic experience, the necessary composure and an optimistic view of the future - an attitude for which a special prize should almost be awarded! But as long as that doesn't exist, we concentrate on the food and drinks on the cooking star menu. There are two of us there on a Sunday lunchtime and we get to know the range of the audience at the Dorfgasthof - but the balancing act between spiced meat and steak au four on the one hand and a four-course menu with the option of ordering it completely vegetarian without any problems seems to work, as many tables are occupied. And by the way: the steak au four comes from straw-fed pigs, which indicates a quality mindset that goes beyond fine dining. Perhaps not a bad idea as a hiking stop...
