lara

Jonathan Wittenbrink & Larissa Andres

How did this place come about and what made it different from the start?
lara is our second place. JOLA came first, in 2022, and once we’d settled into that, our regulars kept telling us to open another one. lara followed in June 2025, just around the corner from JOLA on Passauerplatz.

What made it different from the start was the concept: an à la carte menu instead of a single surprise menu, brunch and dinner instead of dinner only, and dishes that never quite fit JOLA’s tightly curated menu. It became a place for Jonathan’s pasta ideas and all the dishes he’d always wanted to cook, as well as the things Larissa had always wished for but that simply didn’t belong at JOLA.

What part of the day, space, or creative process do those who work here enjoy the most?
Jonathan: I love doing mise en place just as much as I love the creative process of developing new dishes and the energy of evening service.

Larissa: I love the lunch break before service starts, when the JOLA and lara teams come together, talk about our day, our weekend plans, and all kinds of fun things. I also really enjoy service when it’s busy, everyone is having a good time, and you’re simply present instead of overthinking everything.

If someone is coming in for the first time, what should they not miss?
Our snack category. These are all small bites that we originally served in a slightly different form at JOLA as appetizers, and they’ve always been guests’ favorites.

We all have different favorite cocktails, but one you definitely shouldn’t miss is the Creamy Passionfruit Martini, available in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions.

What has been an interesting challenge that has made you rethink something about the project?
Running three services a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, instead of JOLA’s single evening service meant we couldn’t run lara the same way we ran JOLA, where we controlled every detail ourselves.

We had to build and trust a team much earlier than we ever did at JOLA, and that turned out to be a much bigger shift than changing the menu itself.

We also decided to move from serving breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner to offering only brunch and dinner, as the original model simply wasn’t financially sustainable.

What influence, idea, or reference continues to shape the way you work today?
What continues to shape the way we work is a simple but powerful idea: sustainability in gastronomy has to start with the people behind it.

For us, it’s not only about running a restaurant responsibly, but about creating a workplace where people genuinely enjoy being. You spend such a large part of your life at work, and it’s important to us that those hours feel less like work and more like spending time together.

At the same time, we want to grow alongside our team, giving everyone the opportunity to contribute ideas and actively shape what we’re building. We believe that sense of harmony is something guests immediately notice when they walk through the door.

What place, project, or person has inspired you recently and why?
Travel inspires us the most. It’s one of the few times we get to experience restaurants as guests ourselves and see everything from the other side.

When you’re immersed in the daily routine, it’s easy to overlook certain things. Traveling helps us return with fresh perspectives.

Anthony Bourdain once said that restaurateurs, and really anyone working in hospitality, should eat out as much as possible to broaden their horizons. Since starting our own business, we’ve found that to be true every time we travel.

If your space could invite someone to collaborate for a day, who would it be and what would you do together?
We’d love to invite a florist or gardener who specializes in restaurants.

We adore flowers and plants, and we’d love the opportunity to work with someone who could help us integrate them into our concept in a way that feels completely authentic to the space.

Is there an object, corner or detail of the place that has a story that few people know?
Our archways are one of those details.

Together with our architect, Christian Knapp, we were determined to restore them. Arches like these were once common in old Vienna, and traces of the originals were still visible in the space, so bringing them back felt like the natural thing to do.

If this project were a city, a book, or a record, which would it be and why?
Honestly, it reminds us of old New York.

We deliberately went against current interior design trends with dark walls, bold accents of color, and dark wood. That’s exactly what we wanted.

Then there’s our glass bar, which also serves as the Chef’s Table. In Austria, people tend to be a little shy about sitting at a high counter with a direct view into the kitchen, but we couldn’t resist creating it.

In New York, that’s the seat everyone wants. People love being right in the middle of the action and watching the magic happen.